The Poetic Basis of Mind

Excerpt-James Hillman-A Blue Fire

Archetypal psychology is not a psychology of archetypes. Its primary activity is not matching themes in mythology and art to similar themes in life. Rather, the idea is to see every fragment of life and every dream as myth and poetry. A city council asks James Hillman to comment on its plan to build a recreational lake. Hillman understands the immediate concerns, but he lifts the question out of its literal context and considers the need of this city for moisture of soul. It has no pool of reverie, he says. It tends to concretize whatever fantasy comes along. There is little swimming in fantasy, no fluidity of imagination, few authentic aphroditic sea pleasures. The place's soul is parched. It needs a more profound and more subtle water than a lake may provide.

All of Hillman's work—theorizing, analyzing culture, practicing therapy—presupposes what he calls a “poetic basis of mind.” This is psychology rooted not in science but in aesthetics and imagination. By taking everything as poetry, Hillman frees consciousness from its thin, hard crust of literalism to reveal the depth of experi-ence. The soul, he says, turns events into experience. But it is image that is experienced, not literalism. The city feels its lack of water and literally tries to build a lake. Only a poetic mind could penetrate that literalism and make an accurate diagnosis. This poetic vision is what Hillman means by psychology.