https://www.scribd.com/document/373766545/James-Hillman-Re-Visioning-Psychology-Harper-Row-1975
This groundbreaking classic explores the necessity of connections between our life and soul and developing the main lines of the soul-making process.
304 pages
+
Total Price:$71.43
Add all three to Cart
Some of these items dispatch sooner than the others.
Show details
This item: Re-Visioning Psychologyby James HillmanPaperback
$24.06
Soul's Code, The: In Search of Character and Callingby James HillmanPaperback
$25.38
DREAM & UNDERWOR PBby James HillmanPaperback
$21.99
Product description
From the Back Cover
This book is about soul-making. It is an attempt at a psychology of soul, an essay in re-visioning psychology from the point of view of soul. This book is therefore old-fashioned and radically novel because it harks back to the classical notions of soul and yet advances ideas that current psychology has not even begun t consider. Because the soul cannot be understood through psychology alone, our vision even leaves the field of psychology as it is usually thought of, and moves widely through history, philosophy, and religion.
Product details
Publisher : William Morrow & Company; Reissue edition (19 June 1997)
Language : English
Paperback : 304 pages
4.6 out of 5 stars 82 ratings
Top reviews from other countries
Anon
5.0 out of 5 stars BeautifulReviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2019
Verified Purchase
Simply genius. Took me ages to read as I had to stop and think (in a good way) about everything he was saying.
The only downside was the relatively poor paper quality on this particular printing.
One person found this helpfulReport abuse
aw1
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 April 2022
Verified Purchase
Hillman once again superb. There’s gold to be found in this book.
Report abuse
Kevin
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those in the field of Psychotherapy.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2019
Verified Purchase
Much food for thought and relevance for today.
Report abuse
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2016
Verified Purchase
Book in good conditions as described.
Report abuse
Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2016
Verified Purchase
Easy to read, explains Jurgen theories well
Report abuse
One person found this helpfulReport abuse
aw1
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 April 2022
Verified Purchase
Hillman once again superb. There’s gold to be found in this book.
Report abuse
Kevin
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those in the field of Psychotherapy.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2019
Verified Purchase
Much food for thought and relevance for today.
Report abuse
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2016
Verified Purchase
Book in good conditions as described.
Report abuse
Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2016
Verified Purchase
Easy to read, explains Jurgen theories well
Report abuse
=====
Re-Visioning Psychology
by James Hillman
4.29 · Rating details · 884 ratings · 30 reviews
====
Write a review
Nikki
Aug 06, 2009Nikki rated it it was amazing
Shelves: mythology
This book was absolutely fascinating. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much squeezed into 230 pages. I will not even begin to pretend that I can fully understand the full magnitude of this text after one reading. Hillman is doing many things here: revolutionizing how we look at psychology; defining the true meaning and aim of psychology; exemplifying depth psychology; analyzing the history and importance of Greece and the Renaissance; unraveling and dissecting what makes us human; illuminating ways we get trapped by ego; arguing for a return to soul. And, after all that, his ultimate conclusion indicates that to connect psychology to soul it must not ignore religion.
There is no aspect of life, death, psychology, philosophy, sociology, psyche, and soul that Hillman leaves unexplored.
I leave you with some great summary, in Hillman's own words, that will hopefully inspire you to dig into this text:
"Chapter 1 ... was mainly a reflection from the imaginative psyche, the phantasia of the archetypes emerged. We saw there the many images of their persons, their appearances as mythical figures, as daimones and Gods. Chapter 2, mainly a reflection from the affective psyche, brought out the pathos of the archetypes. We saw there that Gods are in the styles of our suffering ... shaping our case history into their myths. Now this chapter [3:], mainly a reflection from the intellectual psyche, presents the logos of the archetypes so that we may recognize the Gods and their myths in our ideas" (129).
From Chapter 4: "Thus the Renaissance achievement of spatial perspective reflects the main themes of this chapter: (a) the depth dimension of soul now entering the subjective structures of consciousness; (b) a new relation with the image and closer participation 'in' its 'reality'; (c) the silmultaneous apperception of the soul's multiplicity, its several points of view coalescing as perspective" (212). (less)
==
Joli Hamilton
Oct 31, 2015Joli Hamilton rated it it was amazing
Shelves: depth-psychology, hillman, joli-s-library, favorites
I've now re-read the entire thing more slowly and wound up with forty pages of notes. Hillman has opened a channel between Jungian psychology and the ocean in my opinion. This book is critical reading for anyone interested in depth psychology or soul-making (less)
flag9 likes · Like · comment · see review
Paul Johnston
Oct 30, 2014Paul Johnston rated it really liked it
This is a fascinating and passionate book - a plea for all sorts of unfashionable things: the imagination rather than the mind, pathology rather than normality, psychology rather than medicine/science or theology, polytheistic soul-making rather than humanism. Hillman wants to move away from the heroic ego and dive into the depths of the unconscious. He wants us to move beyond the human/inhuman dichotomy into the world of soul/Psyche where we can grow and learn from all things including the perverse and the twisted. We need to recognise and accept the gods that move us; rather than cling to the illusion that we are in control or that there is a single God who can do away with uncertainty and the confusing multiplicity of nature where the good and the bad, the beautiful and the horrendous keep spilling over into each other. This is a poetic book, an attack on many aspects of modernity and a slightly desperate call for change. Hillman lambasts literalism, but I was left unsure of what to make of his gods who are as it were real but not literally real. It is also quite hard to anchor the book. It does not give any examples of how these ideas relate to people, so for me it ends up being just a fascinatingly different way of looking at things. The book shows the limitations of many other ways of thinking, but I was less convinced that it points a convincing way forward. What does it mean to move south and to get back to the true polytheistic spirit of the Renaissance? (less)
==
Simon
Nov 16, 2020Simon rated it really liked it
Shelves: 1970s, america-north, existentialism, psychology, philosophy, occult, religion, reviewed, western-esotericism
This is one of the most densely packed reading experiences I have come across in a long while, as well as one of the strangest.
I expected "Re-Visioning Psychology" to contain critical history of psychology's historical development as a scientific discipline as well as laser-sharp dissection of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung's interpretations of classical mythology. After all, that is what I got out of the two other books by James Hillman which I read before. (Insearch: Psychology and Religion and The Myth of Analysis: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology) What surprised me was how far Hillman went down the rabbit hole opened up by another recurring idea in those books: Reconstruction of psychology as an alchemical process of crafting an individual human soul like a work of art - an endeavour Hillman took even more seriously than Jung. However, this is exactly how the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as the Europeans of the Renaissance, understood psychology.
Hillman does not end up doubling down and coming out as a full-blown Hellenic neopagan as I expected, but the result ends up feeling more like one of the Chilean occultist/filmmaker/comic book author Alejandro Jodorowsky's nonfiction works than a typical work of psychology. (as a matter of fact "Re-Visioning Psychology" gave me the idea to re-read The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Creator of El Topo, as well as finally read my mother's copy of Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy - check out my reviews of either book where I highlight my favourite insights from Jodorowsky to be found there!) Indeed, "Re-Visioning Psychology" is a book that could only have been written and taken seriously in the 1970's when such New Agey ideas and philosophies enjoyed a level of mainstream acceptance they will probably never see again. Another mark of the book's 1970's-ness is Hillman examining how many so-called psychopathologies might better be understood in a completely different light. Notice that this book was written in the same timeframe when homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses in most Western countries.
The critical history of psychology accounts for the bulk of the book's academic value which would be non-controversial today. For instance, Hillman makes a good argument that Freud and Jung's theories have more literary than scientific value and that the extremely specific set of metaphors either man used to explain their ideas say more about the grand narratives they as individuals used to make sense of the world than about how the human mind works. Hillman's nerding out over Greco-Roman antiquity is also worth reading for people who do not share his occult inclinations: The analysis of how Plato and Augustine of Hippo described the same processes of transcendence in different terms, as well as the usual in depth clearing up of modern Westerners' misconceptions about classical mythology and philosophy, constitutes some of the best scholarship on those subjects I have come across in a long while.
I think most 21st century readers would nod in agreement with the above mentioned criticism of modern Western misconceptions about Greco-Roman antiquity especially as they pertain to Freud and Jung's appropriation of both. However, I wager it would be a different story with Hillman's project to re-invent psychology as a method of transcendence that has more in common with religious mysticism than with materialistic science. After all, one of the central concepts in "Re-Visioning Psychology" is that humans do not have a soul to begin with but must craft one by creating a grand mythical narrative to make sense of the individual's place in the cosmos. Many of the chapters tread ground more covered by the likes of G. I. Gurdjieff, Colin Wilson and the aforementioned Jodorowsky than by Freud or Jung.
"Re-Visioning Psychology" has much to offer for anyone interested in Greco-Roman mythology and philosophy, the history of psychology as well as esoteric spirituality and occultism - but readers will have to bring a metaphorical saltshaker if they are not interested in all of the above subjects like I am. (less)
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Anne
Apr 12, 2008Anne rated it it was amazing
James Hillman is one of the most brilliant psychologists alive today. This is his classic on, well, revisioning psychology. Reading it was a viscerally psychological experience, kinda like his words actually reached into my brain and moved things around in there. He writes about psychology the way my favorite painters paint about painting; the language and the thing being discussed are one thing together. His subject matter is the restoration of the psyche (the Greek word for soul) back into psych-ology. I highly recommend any of his books, including the more acessable Soul's Code, to anyone involved in any level of soul-searching. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
fisher
Sep 18, 2016fisher rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
this was the toughest book i've ever read, as much for the density of its content as for the extreme academic nature of the work. in spite of the effort required to understand and internalize what hillman puts forward, this is hands-down the most rewarding, enlightening experience that i've drawn constant inspiration from and that has literally changed the way i see the world - inside and out. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Frater
Dec 07, 2012Frater rated it it was amazing
Excellent argument for updating the purpose of psychology. Also serves as a great intro for "Archetypal Psychology". (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Ed Wojniak
May 27, 2017Ed Wojniak rated it it was amazing
Shelves: psychology
Hillman in this book makes a great case for understanding symptoms, that is human pathology, as soul speaking to us, getting our attention. Psyche, is "theophanic," the ever present activity of soul and its efforts at making connections with the Divine and what is innermost and essential in us. Rather than trying to eradicate or minimize our symptoms, we must listen to them as guides to becoming more human. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Ramona P.
Jun 06, 2008Ramona P. rated it really liked it
A complex and provocative book that asks us to expand our ideas about the world of psychology. Hillman introduces new concepts dealing with the study of psychology and pushes us to re-examine how we engage this ever morphing discipline. It's not an easy read but very worthwhile for anyone interested in challenging the methods and principles found within this area of study. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Victor Cirone
Sep 11, 2017Victor Cirone rated it it was amazing
An extraordinary work that I'll be returning to for years...I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get to it in the first place. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Gintas
May 23, 2015Gintas rated it it was amazing
Puiki knyga. Pateikiamų įžvalgų gausa didžiulė. Panašiai kaip Antoine de Saint-Exupéry "Citadelėje". Štai viena autoriaus įžvalga į įžvalgų reliatyvumą: "The more hard evidence and solid backing a psychology finds for its hypotheses, the less its ideas open the soul's eye toward concretely specific insights. The righter it becomes, the wronger its effects; the more tested, the less true. Our tools construct theologies in an idolatry of concepts and methods." (p. 145) Knyga rekomenduotina įsiskaityti, o ne perskaityti. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
MizzSandie
Jun 17, 2012MizzSandie rated it it was ok
Shelves: bored-so-bored, different-cover-on-the-read-version, i-reviewed-this, dissappointed, meh, please-be-over-soon, wake-me-up-when-it-gets-good, what-a-waste-of-time, psychology, youre-doing-it-wrong
This was a drag.
There were good and interesting passages throughout where Hillmann writes very poetically, interestingly and captivating. Unfortunately these passages were few.
The rest were a lot of historic and mythic references that I had a hard time following and caring about.
The reflections on soul, the psychology field, contemporary society and examples on how archetypes and myths are rearing their heads throughout our personal and societal lives I found interesting, but it was covered in too much unintelligible talk that I had a hard time getting through this. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Jim Coughenour
Jul 25, 2007Jim Coughenour rated it it was amazing
Shelves: essaysforautodidacts
To my mind, the best of of Hillman's many fine books. Reading Hillman is itself an act of imagination. I first read this book 30 years ago, and I still pick it up and read something in it every year.
(less)
flag1 like · Like · 1 comment · see review
Janet Wichmann
Nov 19, 2015Janet Wichmann rated it really liked it
An in depth treatise on the primacy of soul as the core of psychology and psychological treatment. Hillman's insistence and academic backing on the soul's centrality to the psyche's existence is both a relief and inspiration on a personal and professional level. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Elan
Nov 26, 2019Elan rated it it was amazing
A must read for anyone with an interest in the therapy of Soul..
flag1 like · Like · see review
Kenzie
Jan 01, 2020Kenzie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: depth-psychology
Through a highly developed synthesis of depth psychology and Neoplatonism, Hillman makes an excellent case for a soulful second look at the world. We moderns are stuck in a literalistic worldview that prevents us from healing ourselves or from encountering life's mysteries in an authentic way, and psyche calls us to break free of the literal to find a multitude of other perspectives. Psyche is itself a perspective, a way of looking through everything in our inner and outer world to infinite depths (23). Not only do we need to look with new eyes, but our relationship to what we see must also change. Everything we encounter is a subject, and our encounters with archetypes (or Gods) are what influence our feelings, behaviors, and ideas. By personifying the world, by encountering everything as a subject, we are able to encounter the world with our hearts, and thus through love, make sense of it (14-15).
Hillman focuses on language and image as two ways that we encounter soul and give voice to it: either through the eloquent use of metaphor and myth or through the use of fantastical images. Through language (logos), we give voice to soul (psyche) and find our true purpose as humans (psychologizing). Indeed, even words themselves are persons requiring thoughtful use (9). Images likewise are both the "raw materials and finished products of psyche" (xi) and are powerful so long as we refuse to interpret or analyze them (39). Yet psychologizing requires neither language or image and can be as simple as performing a task as though it as something else (143). Whenever the literal gives way to the metaphorical, soul is present.
Thus for Hillman, truth is not found in ideas, which are always an expression of one archetypal voice or another, but in the reflection process itself. What is true is the activity of soul's encounter with the world. Moreover, humans are only "metaphors enacting multiple personifications"--our bodies do not possess "our" souls, but are rather possessed by soul (51, 174). Death becomes a final unknown, the final depth to discover (110), and soul thus carries the mystery of death within each living body (207).
I love that Thomas Moore has built on Hillman's psychology to show more clearly what "care of the soul" looks like, and I love that I now have a fuller understanding of the ideas behind care of the soul. These ideas, and the actions that flow from them, have certainly made my life more beautiful and meaningful. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Anita Ashland
Nov 25, 2019Anita Ashland rated it it was amazing
Shelves: psychology
In this groundbreaking book, for which Hillman was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Hillman puts the soul back in psychotherapy. "When we lose this focus on psyche, psychology becomes medicine or sociology or practical theology or something else, but not itself."
Soul is "that unknown component which makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences, is communicated in love, and has a religious concern. 1.) soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences; 2.) the significance soul makes possible, whether in love or in religious concern, derives from its special relation with death. 3.) the imaginatie possibility in our natures that recognizes all realities are primarily symbolic or metaphorical."
"Often in the course of a therapeutic analysis a revolution in experience occurs. Soul is rediscovered, and with it comes a rediscovery of human-kind, nature, and world. One begins to see all things psychologically, from the viewpoint of the soul, and the world seems to carry an inner light."
"Psychology ideally means giving soul to language and finding language for soul."
(less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Joe
Jun 14, 2021Joe rated it it was amazing
To abuse a made-up term, I've come to realize that my favorite genre of criticism is mythography, which lays down methods of seeing the world but never inscribes literal truths. I've come to this via trickster myths, which strike me as an ideal entry-point, because the trickster operates at the seams of the world and turns these into magical portals.
Similarly, Hillman identifies the seams between what we experience as ego consciousness and the massively overlaying field of psyche, which individual humans can never fully contain. In some ways, Hillman's writing about psyche reminds me of a neuroscientist's musing about consciousness, that perhaps it is the universal quality, and reality is suffused by consciousness, or more than that, consciousness is the fundamental element of reality. Individual consciousness may just be our "tuning" of a radio wave that creates the field for all forms of existence. In other words, our brains are radio tuners, pulling down a frequency that we experience as our "self" or selfness.
Anyway, I liked this book a lot. It was very challenging, the sort of exploration that teaches you how to read it as it goes along. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Randolph Severson
Feb 17, 2019Randolph Severson rated it it was amazing
This book with its provocations, its beauty, its seminal insight and sparkling style is a landmark. After it, psychology was and will never be quite the same. For the author, the Renaissance and Italy are sacred ground. In fact, as well as delivering the Terry Lectures at Yale and other academic honors, received in Florence, usually considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic. The book, in fact, is less a ‘psychology’ book in any conventional sense and in its sweep and scope and mesmerizing effect on the reader more akin to a great novel or a film by Visconti or the other great revolutionary Italian Directors. Nonetheless, it remains a psychology book like no other in that it speaks a soul language dense with poetry, as it convincingly develops a logos of soul, that is, not only a language but a definition and logic of soul and a demonstration of that logic, personifying, pathologizing, seeing through and de-humanizing. Highly recommended. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Nancy Hinsey
Sep 01, 2019Nancy Hinsey added it
Shelves: didn-t-finish
Could not get through this one. It is not written for the lay person, let alone someone who's had years of therapy and done a lot of related reading. Hillman is surely well know in psychotherapy circles, but for me, unfortunately, his reputation and wisdom remain hearsay. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Anders
Jan 31, 2022Anders rated it really liked it
I want to give it five stars because of how unique and interesting it is, but it made me yawn and roll my eyes too many times for it to earn a full five stars.
flagLike · comment · see review
Mitchell Goheen
Feb 24, 2020Mitchell Goheen rated it it was amazing
Blown away by the insight and rhetoric
flagLike · comment · see review
Mauro
Jan 15, 2011Mauro added it · review of another edition
Shelves: psico
Interessante in generale la prospettiva di Hillman del fare anima atraverso l'aspetto immaginale della psiche, cosicchè l'immaginale diventa il reale. Anche il suo rivolgersi all'alchimia e all'arte della memoria è di grande rilievo, soprattutto l'ultimo capitolo che gira intorno all'interpretazione neoplatonica e rinascimentale (Marsilio Ficino) dell'anima. Invece non condivido assolutamente le sue valorazioni rispetto alla psicologia umanistica e alle varie prassi spirituali come tecniche per la crescita personale (meditazione, ecc.). (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Royden Irvine
Aug 09, 2012Royden Irvine rated it it was amazing
This book changed my life!
A great post jungian writer!
flagLike · comment · see review
Phineas
Oct 24, 2008Phineas marked it as to-read
Hillman has been rec'd time and time again as an innovative thinker in psychology...looking forward to learning his ideas! (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Stephanie
May 06, 2012Stephanie rated it it was amazing
A primary text working in and with imaginal life.
flagLike · comment · see review
Timothy
Mar 05, 2022Timothy rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favourites
Incredible essays on mystery, soul and the imaginal
flagLike · comment · see review
Anders
Feb 16, 2009Anders rated it really liked it
Shelves: psychology
An important book of Hillman's - I used it extensively for my MA thesis (less)
===
Review of Re-visioning Psychology by James Hillman
https://medium.com/@Elan_vital__/review-of-re-visioning-psychology-by-james-hillman-9b5ff61fd7a4
In this essay, I will discuss my response to Re-visioning Psychology by James Hillman. I found this book to be interesting and refreshing. Hillman’s view is that the primary reality is psyche. However, the psyche is constituted of archetypal personalities, which may be termed “gods.” Hillman uses the gods of Greek mythology to illustrate the types of these archetypal personalities. The Freudian ego itself is also an archetypal personality, in this case the lead character in the hero myth.
While they are inhuman, the gods do have specific personalities. Moreover, they are the primary reality. We are persons as such, therefore, because the gods have personality. This interesting idea reverses the usual notion that human personal qualities are projected into mythical systems invented by humans. Quite the contrary, the gods breathe life into us, animate us with their personalities.
The idea that we are emanations of the gods, rather than the other way round, is reminiscent of the Bergsonian notion of the primordial quality of deep duration. It also brings to mind Julian Jaynes’ theory of the origin of consciousness (i.e., ego) in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, in that the bicameral human psyche is more obviously constellated of gods.
I would perhaps question Hillman’s emphasis on personality. I would argue for a different ontology, and a bidirectional flow of influence between psyche and world, in which abstract principles originating from the deepest source of our knowing become clothed with human personality.
In any case, the book is well written and full of attractive ideas. Here are a few of my favourite lines:
To enter myth we must personify; to personify carries us into myth. (p. 16)
Thus the soul finds psyche everywhere, recognizes itself in all things. (p. 154)
Archetypes are the skeletal structures of the psyche, yet the bones are changeable constellations of light. (p. 157)
And lastly, the rather shocking and debatable,
Self-realization involves the realizing in consciousness of the psychopathic potential one prefers to call inhuman. (p. 188)
Hillman, J. (1992). Re-visioning psychology. New York: Harper Perennial. (Original work published 1976)
© Kerry Handscomb 2017. All rights reserved.
===
Retro review classic: Re-visioning psychology by James Hillman
Helena Bassil-Morozow
Media and Journalism
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
Overview
Original language English
Pages (from-to) 77-78
Number of pages 2
Journal Self and Society
Volume 40
Issue number 3
Publication status Published - 2013
Keywordspsychology
soul
psychotherapy
Jungian theory
Documents and Links
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03060497.2013.11084294
Retro review classic: Re-visioning psychology by James Hillman
Helena Bassil-Morozow
Media and Journalism
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
Overview
Original language English
Pages (from-to) 77-78
Number of pages 2
Journal Self and Society
Volume 40
Issue number 3
Publication status Published - 2013
Keywordspsychology
soul
psychotherapy
Jungian theory
Documents and Links
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03060497.2013.11084294
===
===
===
