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Quote by James Hillman

“I just read about John Le Carre, the great spy novelist. He had an absolutely miserable childhood. His mother deserted him when he was young. His father was a playboy and a drunk. He was shifted around to many different homes. He knew he was a writer when he was about nine, but he was dyslexic. So here was a person with an absolutely messed-up childhood and a symptom that prevented him from doing what he wanted to do most. Yet that very symptom was part of the calling. It forced him to go deeper.”

Quote by James Hillman

Author

James Hillman (April 12, 1926 - October 27, 2011) was an American psychologist and a prominent figure in the field of analytical psychology. His research focused on dream analysis, mythology, and the relationship between the human psyche and nature. Hillman's works have had a profound impact on psychology, literature, and the arts. more

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“Many people nowadays who discover that they have a major symptom, whether psychological or physical, begin to study it. They get drawn very deeply into the area of their trouble. They want to know more than their doctor. That's a curious thing, and not at all the way it used to be.”

People Knows Way Want Used Study Trouble Majors Areas Doctors Psychological Used To Be Curious Symptoms Very Deep

Author:James Hillman

“People used to trust their doctor. They went to an expert. Now people have new ideas and are thinking for themselves. That's a very important change in our collective psychology.”

People Thinking Important Ideas Used Psychology Doctors Experts Collectives New Ideas

Author:James Hillman

“Beauty has never been an important topic in the writings of the major psychologists. In fact, for Jung, aesthetics is a weak, early stage of development. He follows the Germanic view that ethics is more important than aesthetics, and he draws a stark contrast between the two. Freud may have written about literature a bit, but an aesthetic sensitivity is not part of his psychology.”

“Art, for example, becomes "art therapy." When patients make music, it becomes "music therapy." When the arts are used for "therapy" in this way, they are degraded to a secondary position.”

Way Art Used Example Position Patient Therapy Art Therapy Music Therapy

Author:James Hillman

“Beauty is something everybody longs for, needs, and tries to obtain in some way - whether through nature, or a man or a woman, or music, or whatever. The soul yearns for it. Psychology seems to have forgotten that.”

Men Way Needs Trying Soul Seems Psychology Forgotten

Author:James Hillman

“One strand of psychotherapy is certainly to help relieve suffering, which is a genuine medical concern. If someone is bleeding, you want to stop the bleeding. Another medical aspect is the treatment of chronic complaints that are disabling in some way. And many of our troubles are chronic. Life is chronic. So there is a reasonable, sensible, medical side to psychotherapy.”

Ifs Way Want Helping Life Is Suffering Sides Trouble Concern Aspect Medical Genuine Reasonable Treatment Sensible Complaints Bleeding Psychotherapy Strands

Author:James Hillman

“Many of our troubles are chronic. Life is chronic.”

Life Is Trouble

Author:James Hillman

“As the popular trust in science fades - and many sociologists say that's happening today - people will develop a distrust of purely "scientific" psychology. Researchers in the universities haven't picked up on this; they're more interested in genetics and computer models of thinking than ever. But, in general, there is a huge distrust of the scientific establishment now.”

People Thinking Today Psychology Havens Huge Computer Models Happenings University Establishment Fades Distrust Genetics Researchers Sociologists

Author:James Hillman

“The new age self-help phenomenon is pretty mushy, but it's also very American. Our history is filled with traveling preachers and quack medicine and searches for the soul. I don't see this as a new thing. I think the new age is part of a phenomenon that's been there all along.”

Thinking Soul Self Helping Age Self Help Filled Medicine Phenomenon Preacher New Things New Age Quacks

Author:James Hillman

“It's very hard in our adversarial society to find a third view. Take journalism, where everything is always presented as one person against another: "Now we're going to hear the opposing view." There is never a third view.”

Persons Hard Views Thirds Journalism Opposing Opposing Views

Author:James Hillman