What set of factors most influence the course of an individual
human life? Nature? Nurture? The choices a person makes, including
one's intimate relationships? Or is it the complex interplay of all
of these? For Jungian analyst and prolific writer Hillman (Kinds of
Power, 1995, etc.), the correct answer is apparently "none of the
above." Rather, Hillman focuses single-mindedly on each person's
special daimon, an abstract, almost mystical notion lifted from
Neoplatonic thought that he defines as "an invisible nonhuman
escort," and "the lot your soul chose before you ever took a
breath." This daimon, he argues, "the essence" or blueprint of each
life, calls us to a very particular destiny, and it does not
willingly suffer our neglect. In developing endless variations on
this idea, he comes out sounding extraordinarily fatalistic,
positing, for instance, that "assassination was written in Gandhi's
script." Thus, he largely downplays such basic aspects of the human
condition as choice, conflict, ambivalence, chance, irrationality,
and madness. And Hillman's intense focus on individuals and their
unique fates means that the communal side of life, and specifically
altruism and other positive social values, are also given little
weight. Finally, as the following passage exemplifies, Hillman's
prose often seems both confusingly bloated and maddeningly
ethereal: "I am different from everyone else and the same as
everyone else; I am different from myself ten years ago and the
same as myself ten years ago; my life is a stable chaos, chaotic
and repetitive both, and I can never predict what tiny, trivial bit
of input will result in a huge and significant output." This, and
passages like it, are likely to leave many readers scratching their
heads. This verbose book would have benefitted by being pruned into
a stylistically far tighter essay, less declamatory and more
reflective. (Kirkus Reviews)
Plato and the Greeks called it 'daimon', the Romans 'genius', the
Christians 'Guardian Angel' - and today we use terms such as
'heart', 'spirit' and 'soul'. For James Hillman it is the central
and guiding force of his utterly unique and compelling 'acorn
theory' which proposes that each life is formed by a particular
image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a
destiny, just as the mighty oak's destiny is written in the tiny
acorn. Highly accessible and imaginative, The Soul's Code offers a
liberating vision of childhood troubles and an exciting approach to
themes such as freedom, and, most of all, calling - that invisible
mystery at the centre of every life that voices the fundamental
question, 'What is in my heart that I must do, be and have? And
why?'
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