Hillman tells us to focus on the fundamental patterns of animation best found in the myths of our tribes. Look for them at your next Carnaval

Whereas Carl Jung’s psychology focused on the Self, its dynamics and its constellations (ego, anima, animus, shadow), Hillman’s archetypal psychology relativizes and deliteralizes the ego and focuses on the psyche, or soul, itself and the archai, the deepest patterns of psychic functioning, “the fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypal psychology is a polytheistic psychology, in that it attempts to recognize the myriad fantasies and myths- gods, goddesses, demigods, mortals and animals- that shape and are shaped by our psychological lives. The ego is but one psychological fantasy within an assemblage of fantasies.
 

"Therapy, or analysis, is not only something that analysts do to patients; it is a process that goes on intermittently in our individual soul-searching, our attempts at understanding our complexities, the critical attacks, prescriptions, and encouragements we give ourselves. We are all in therapy all the time insofar as we are involved in soul-making."
- James Hillman, Re-visioning Psychology

James Hillman credits investigation into hysteria with the birth of psychoanalysis itself (Myth of Analysis 258). Discerning that archetypal energy of hysteria as Dionysian, Hillman builds a whole theory of archetypal psychology based on the relationship of mythology and psychology:

The iconoclastic author of many  books which challenge psychotherapy, Hillman is best known to the general public as author of the best-selling  The Soul's Code : In Search of Character and Calling  which asserts  that human beings are born with a daimon - an encoded destiny. outlines what he calls the acorn theory of the soul. This theory states that each individual holds the potential for their unique possibilites inside themselves already, much as an acorn holds the pattern for an oak, invisible within itself. It argues against the parental fallacy whereby our parents are seen as crucial in determining who we are by supplying us with genetic material and behavioral patterns. Instead the book suggests for a reconnection with what is invisible within us, our daimon or soul or acorn and its calling to the wider world of nature. It argues against theories which attempt to map life into phases, suggesting that this is counter-productive and makes people feel like they are failing to live up to what is normal. This in turn produces a truncated, normalized society of soulless mediocrity where evil is not allowed but injustice is everywhere—a society that cannot tolerate eccentricity or the further reaches of life experiences but sees them as illnesses to be medicated out of existence.

Within Hillman's intellectual  realm  of archetypal psychology, his contributions to insight and learning are generally considered second only to C. J. Jung himself. He lives in Connecticut.

wiki/James_Hillman

SPRING PUBLICATIONS began as an activity of the Analytical Psychology Club of New York during the Second World War, bringing the ideas of C. G. Jung into American translations, first publishing Emma Jung’s classic essay, Animus and Anima (still in print) in 1955. In 1970 James Hillman assumed director of the publications from its long-time former editor, Jane Abbot Pratt. Spring moved from Zurich to Dallas, Texas in 1978 and became an independent corporation with offices in the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. In 1984 editorial activities moved to Eastern Connecticut: Pomfret, Storrs, Thompson, Woodstock, and now Putnam, with offices above the historic Bradley Playhouse.

Our logo (the ram and the goat) symbolizes the focus of the press. The ram’s forward push and the goat’s backward look recall a Renaissance idea: that one best moves forward by looking back to history and tradition. The animals are poised over a watery, reed-rimmed pool, emblems of reflection and the soul—a major theme in many Spring books.

Since the early 1940s, we have been publishing psychological ideas branching out and blurring the lines between art, philosophy, the history of ideas, psychiatry, mythology, literature, and religion.

Our well-designed and faithfully-edited books include works by Karl Kerényi, Mircea Eliade, Gershom Scholem, Joseph Campbell, Henry Corbin, Edward S. Casey, Klaus Ottmann, Howard McConeghy, and Charles Boer in the area of classics, philosophy, art, religion, and myth; Marie-Louise von Franz, Murray Stein, Mary Watkins, Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig, and Alfred Ziegler on depth psychology;  Ginette Paris, Thomas Moore, John Allan, Nor Hall, Gaston Bachelard, Richard Tarnas, Deldon McNeely, John Haule on archetypal psychology; Michael Ventura, George Boas, Hayao Kawai, Seldon Rodman, and Luis Nunez on current culture.

Of his many books, Spring Publications has published ten James Hillman books including  Pan and the Nightmare, Oedipus Variations (with Karl Kerényi), and Lectures on Jung’s Typology (with Marie-Louise von Franz). Reaching back to the classic works from Greece, Rome, and the Italian Renaissance, replenishing the modern mind with books on the nature of religion, art, philosophy, ritual, initiation, and the cult of soul. The soul in the practice of psychotherapy is one of their mainstays: therapy in childhood, midlife and as we age; in the various symptoms of eros, of psychopathologies and diseases; and the therapy of therapy itself.

SANTERIA STORIES by Luis Manuel Núñez For his new book, an elegantly clear and authoritative study of Santeria mythology, Luis M. Núñez, the author of Santeria: A Practical Guide to Afro-Caribbean Magic, collected the ancient stories told in Santeria, a widely practiced religion resulting from the syncretism of Catholicism and African religion. These stories, which speak about the actions and conflicts of the divine ancestors of the Yoruba slaves of Nigeria have been retold for centuries by native-born Africans and their Cuban-born descendents during their sacred and secular dances, carnivals, and festivals throughout the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.   First edition 200 pages approx. Paperback original, $22 (0-88214-567-3) AVAILABLE IN MAY 2006 MYTHOLOGY/AFRICAN STUDIES

Spring Journal also publishes books about archetypal psychology, mythology, and Jungian psychology under the imprint of Spring Journal Books. Wolfgang Giegerich, Paul Kugler, Christine Downing, David L. Miller, Lyn Cowan, Linda Leonard, Greg Mogenson, Robert Romanyshyn, and Michael Conforti are some of our authors.

Spring is honored to count among its many past and present contributors the following individuals:

http://www.springjournalandbooks.com/

http://www.daimon.ch/Spring1.htm For outside the USA