This essay is mostly a commentary on The Myth of Analysis by James Hillman, a collection of three essays that were originally given as talks during the intellectual renaissance of the Eranos lectures in Ascona, Switzerland. Hillman has revised these talks into fluid prose with extended and layered argumentation. My commentary here functions more broadly as a response to Hillman’s paradigm of “archetypal psychology” and so draws upon his other works, including Archetypal Psychology (2013) and The Soul’s Code (1996).
Hillman represents an important intersection in intellectual, psychological, medical, and artistic contexts. His thesis is universal, his ethic is human. This essay cannot do justice to the nuance, density, and scope of Hillman’s contributions—it functions more as an aesthetic response.
