The Life and Ideas of James Hillman: Volume II: Re-Visioning Psychology

He’s the father of archetypal psychology. I was taught at the school he gave lectures to and by his # one student! I got to meet the author, a friend of James. What a writer, what a humanitarian! I read part 1 of this biography and loved it! So did my sister and many of my friends. Can’t wait to read part 2! The book arrived immediately and in perfect condition. This man I the psychologist of the 21st century. A must read!

Having spent some forty five years invested in this man and his writings, frequently seeing him, but never able to put the pieces together. This book does that. It takes you deeply into the man, his family, his lovers and friends to illustrate the creation of 'archetypal psychology'. Dick Russell has produced a great biography (and this is only volume II of a three volume set). I look forward to the release of the third volume soon. Congratulations to Mr. Russell on this work. I waited nine years since the first volume release, but this is worth the wait.

This is the second volume in the trilogy about James Hillman, the psychologist who founded archetypal psychology. It's been 10 years since the first volume came out and I believe the third is already out now too. I regard Hillman's work as my greatest intellectual inspiration and wrote my doctoral dissertation about ways his ideas can be put to use in an aesthetic-based therapy. Hillman was cantankerous (as am I) and I found some of his positions really annoying. The author doesn't really address those much in this volume. For one thing, Hillman literally refused to discuss gender even though he was the ultimate puer with a bad mommy complex who became involved in the mythopoetic men's movement. How do you do that? You can't join the men's movement and not acknowledge that the world is very much organized around gender. Nor would he discuss gay and lesbian identity. He would rage against post-structural discourses (including queer theory), even though his work seemed inspired in part by them (especially Derrida's notion of play). Nonetheless, I highly recommend this and the first volume of the trilogy. I'm looking forward to reading the third!