A Jungian perspective on finding greater meaning in misery. Title #73 in the series Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts.

For anyone who has suffered guilt, grief, betrayal, doubt, depression, anger or terror. For Jung followers and those interested in new ways to self-improvement. According to Jungian psychology, happiness is not the meaning of life. Instead, meaning can be found in all of life's experiences, including the darkest of times.

Swamplands explains how much there is to be learned and appreciated in the darkness, and in doing so, helps those who are suffering to live more satisfying lives.

"Creating a Life" is a powerful series of commentaries on the importance of the examined life, illustrating how we may arrive at an understanding of our life choices and relationships by exploring our core complexes and personal history. With insight and compassion grounded in the humanist side of analytical psychology, Hollis elucidates the circuitous way of individuation. The text is deeply enriched by the inclusion of poems and excerpts from the works of modern writers ( including John Fowles, Rilke, D.H. Lawrence, Pascal and Kierkegaard).

What does life ask of us, and how are we to answer that summons? Are we here just to propagate the species anew? Do any of us really believe that we are here to make money and then die? Does life matter, in the end, and if so, how, and in what fashion? What guiding intelligence weaves the threads of our individual biographies? What hauntings of the invisible world invigorate, animate, and direct the multiple narratives of daily life? In Hauntings, James Hollis considers how we are all governed by the presence of invisible forms spirits, ghosts, ancestral and parental influences, inner voices, dreams, impulses, untold stories, complexes, synchronicities, and mysteries which move through us, and through history. He offers a way to understand them psychologically, examining the persistence of the past in influencing our present, conscious lives and noting that engagement with mystery is what life asks of each of us. From such engagements, a deeper, more thoughtful, more considered life may come.

"What we wish to know, and most desire, remains unknowable and lies beyond our grasp." With these words, James Hollis leads readers to consider the nature of our human need for meaning in life and for connection to a world less limiting than our own. In The Archetypal Imagination, Hollis offers a lyrical Jungian appreciation of the archetypal imagination. He argues that without the human mind's ability to form energy-filled images that link us to worlds beyond our rational and emotional capacities, we would have neither culture nor spirituality. Drawing upon the work of poets and philosophers, Hollis shows the importance of depth experience, meaning, and connection to an "other" world. The author draws upon the work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, particularly his Duino Elegies, to elucidate the archetypal imagination in literary forms. To underscore the importance of incarnating depth experience, he also examines a series of paintings by Nancy Witt. With the power of the archetypal imagination available to all of us, we are invited to summon courage to take on the world anew and to risk a radical re-imagining of the larger possibilities of the world and of the self.

"The author's challenge is compassionate and inspired. He wants us to succeed." -Psychological Perspectives A timely and thought-provoking corrective to the generalized fantasies about relationships that permeate Western culture. Here is a challenge to greater personal responsibility, a call for individual growth as opposed to seeking rescue through others.

Saturn was the Roman god who ate his childern to stop them from usurping his power. Men have been psychologically and spiritually wounded by this legacy. Hollis offers a rich perspective on the secrets men carry in their hearts.

Elections around the world are plagued with the problem of unequal levels of participation. This can have profound consequences for election results, representation and policies. This book focuses on the interventions that can be used to redress the turnout gap and other inequalities within the electoral process. The book defines the concept of inclusive voting practices to refer to policy instruments which can reduce turnout inequality between groups and mitigate other inequalities within the electoral process. Studies from around the world then examine how policies can affect inclusivity on election day. This includes research on enfranchising felons and migrant communities; compulsory voting; voter ID requirements; voter registration practices; investment in electoral management; gendered electoral violence; accessible voting practices; and overseas voting. As a result, this book will be of interest to scholars of democracy, democratic theory and elections, as well as having major policy implications worldwide. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Policy Studies.

The Jungian analyst author of the best-selling The Middle Passage and The Eden Project describes the sometimes difficult emotional process of transitioning into the second half of life, counseling readers on how to discover career fulfillment, renew a stagnating relationship, face mortality, and more. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

Title #59. Why do so many go through so much disruption in their middle years? Why then? Why do we consider it to be a crisis? What does the pattern mean and how can we survive it? The Middle Passage shows how we may pass through midlife consciously, rendering our lives more meaningful and the second half of life immeasurably richer.

A masterful author and Jungian analyst examines the qualities that bring meaning to our human journey.

What is it that brings meaning to your life? Our culture tells us to seek wealth, power, prestige, or even enrollment in someone else’s idea of a worthy cause―yet where do we turn when these paths fail to fulfill our need for purpose? “When the old stories and beliefs that once defined us have played out and grown exhausted,” teaches Dr. James Hollis, “our task is to access our inner compass, the promptings of the psyche that help us find our way through the complex thickets of choice.”

A Life of Meaning is Hollis’s profound exploration of the nature of meaning and how we can orient toward it or away from it with the choices we make. Hollis offers an examination of myth, literature, historical figures, and the wisdom of depth psychology that provides penetrating insight into the search for purpose.

Join him to explore:

• How even cherished narratives splinter and lose potency over time
• Why dreams are windows into your internalized patterns and base assumptions
• How to excavate and understand your earliest, most foundational beliefs
• The power of fear and how it shapes unconscious reactions
• Recognizing and rising to the occasion of a “summons of the soul”
• How to anchor yourself during times of uncertainty and change
• Why it’s important to be aware of and closely examine your shadow
• How to reckon with old feelings of shame, betrayal, resentment, and regret

We all have to discover our own sense of meaning. No one else can do it for us. In A Life of Meaning, Hollis offers no easy answers or feel-good certainties―instead, he shares his most valuable questions and reflections to help you find the courage, persistence, and inspiration to navigate your own odyssey.

An Invitation to Listen to Your Soul's Calling How do you define "growing up"? Does it mean you achieve certain cultural benchmarks-a steady income, paying taxes, marriage, and children? Or does it mean leaving behind the expectations of others and growing into the person you were meant to be? If you find yourself in a career, place, relationship, or crisis you never foresaw or that seems at odds with your beliefs about who you are, it means your soul is calling on you to reexamine your path. With Living an Examined Life, James Hollis offers an essential guidebook for anyone at a crossroads in life. Here this acclaimed author guides you through 21 areas for self-inquiry and growth, challenging you to: * Recover Personal Authority-how to stop living in response to the expectations placed on you * Choose Meaning Over Happiness-why seeking truth instead of entertaining distractions ultimately leads to greater fulfillment * Exorcise the Ghosts of the Past That Bind You-how the voices that haunt you can lead you to grow * Bestow Love on the Unlovable Parts of You-recovering the guiding force concealed in your Shadow * Construct a Mature Spirituality-the five essential elements of integrating meaning and mystery into your life * Seize Permission to Be Who You Really Are-the challenge of fully showing up for your life With his trademark eloquence and insight, Dr. Hollis offers Living an Examined Life to inspire you toward a life of personal authority, integrity, and fulfillment. "It is my hope that this book will be a tool to recover your respect for that which abides deeply within," writes Dr. Hollis. "You will not be spared disappointment or suffering. But you can know the depth and dignity of an authentic journey, of being a real player in your time on this turning planet, and your life will become more interesting, taking you deeper than ever before."

Whatever our cultural and religious background or personal psychology, a greater intimacy with myth provides a vital link with meaning, the absence of which is so often behind the neuroses of our time. Here the acclaimed author of The Middle Passage (title 59) explains why a connection with our mythic roots is crucial for us as individuals and as responsible citizens of our age.

In HAUNTINGS, James Hollis considers how we are all governed by the presence of invisible forms - spirits, ghosts, ancestral and parental influences, inner voices, dreams, impulses, untold stories, complexes, synchronicities and mysteries - which move through us and through history.

Over the years James Hollis has offered us many a feast, and we have grown to appreciate the nourishment of their unique mixtures of bitter and sweet. Here he shares our boat, navigating the questions without charts that haunt us all. This is not a book of revealed truths. Rather it surrenders to the questions, guided only by whatever insight, endurance and energy each of us may have. He acknowledges the uniqueness and value of each individual life journey, sharing his personal experience only so that we can find our own understanding.