Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136298 in Books
• Published on: 1979-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

The Only James Hillman Book which tells you How to resolve the Psyche
James Hillman has written many books mapping the psyche. Having read most of them - and also this one - I would say this one particularly tackles a framework of how to resolve the psyche PRACTICALLY. Chapter 6 focuses on this. And it is workable. It worked for myself and my wife, and was the first real step in beginning to move beyond the ego.

Thank you, James Hillman, for being the only psychologist in my life (and I have read many many) to show me how to move beyond myself.

On the way to Soul
First and foremost, James Hillman is a "Champion of Soul," responding appropriately to the everlasting question: "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" How is one to "retrieve his/her soul?" Obviously, we need help to do so; hence, Jung and Hillman, and others, such as Marion Woodman, not to mention Joseph Campbell, William Blake, Robert Graves. One might even gain great insight from reading M. Esther Harding's classic: WOMEN'S MYSTERIES. They all come together eventually for the serious soulseeker. To sum up, quoting Hillman, "Dreams mean well by us," in spite of their appearance to the contrary; they are designed to dissolve the interfering Ego, the Ego that would deprive you of your true Happiness.

Baffled but battling on
On page 103 where Hillman says "Again, what is hard to realize is that all the persons [in the dream], including myself may be taken as masks playing our death roles." After first thinking how great this sounded I wrote in the margin: but what does it mean? I'm still not sure whether it means anything in fact.

Coming to the end of the book, I am still baffled what his point is. I think he is saying that we shouldn't interpret dreams, just let them be. And while this is a valid viewpoint, why bother writing a book about it, as most people don't interpret their dreams anyway?

Like about book about how you shouldn't read books, a book giving an interpretation about how you shouldn't interpret maybe doesn't need reading.

It sounds profound, and I am still uncertain whether it is and I'm just missing the profundity. However, there are also lots of books by people about "Lightbodies" and "Truth Vibrations" which ultimately boil down to being nonsense, despite their apparent profundity.

I like his poetic style though. Maybe he missed his way.