"James Hillman, of course, is an outspoken proponent of what he calls polytheistic psychology. "Of all the moves," he writes, "none is so far-reaching in cultural implication as the attempt to recover the perspectives of polytheism" (Hillman, 1983a, p. 41). He equates the classical Jungian focus on the self to a species of monotheism. "The preference for self and monotheism," he says, "strikes to the heart of a psychology which stresses the plurality of the archetypes" (Hillman, 1971/2000, p. 21). Instead, he says, "[t]he plurality of archetypal forms reflects the pagan level of things and what might be called a polytheistic psychology. It provides for many varieties of consciousness, styles of existence, and ways of soul-making" (Hillman, 1970/2000, p. 17). Hillman stands against "the strong ego, the suppressive integration of personality, and the unified independence of will" when they are at the expense of ambivalence, partial drives, complexes, images, vicissitudes. "A polytheistic model of the psyche," he says, "seems logical and helpful when confronting the many voices and figments that pop up in any single patient, including myself. I can't even imagine how we could ever have got on in therapy without a polytheistic background" (Hillman, 1971/2000, p. 49). And Hillman says, provocatively, "Multiple personality is humanity in its natural condition. In other cultures these multiple personalities have names, locations, energies, functions, voices, angel and animal forms, and even theoretical formulations as different kinds of soul" (Hillman, 1983a, p. 62; emphasis added)." (Source, cites a dead link)
James Hillman is an American psychologist, and I want to shake his hand. This perspective, to me, is groundbreaking. It asserts that hearing these voices is not only non-threatening, but healthy, and NORMAL. Read more about Polytheistic Psychology here.
James Hillman is an American psychologist, and I want to shake his hand. This perspective, to me, is groundbreaking. It asserts that hearing these voices is not only non-threatening, but healthy, and NORMAL. Read more about Polytheistic Psychology here.