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  • The Archetypal Imagination

  • Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology
  • By: James Hollis PhD
  • Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
  • Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)
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The Archetypal Imagination

By: James Hollis PhD
Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
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Summary

"What we wish to know, and most desire, remains unknowable and lies beyond our grasp."

With these words, James Hollis leads listeners to consider the nature of our human need for meaning in life and for connection to a world less limiting than our own.

In The Archetypal Imagination, Hollis offers a lyrical Jungian appreciation of the archetypal imagination. He argues that without the human mind's ability to form energy-filled images that link us to worlds beyond our rational and emotional capacities, we would have neither culture nor spirituality. Drawing upon the work of poets and philosophers, Hollis shows the importance of depth experience, meaning, and connection to an "other" world.

Just as humans have instincts for biological survival and social interaction, we have instincts for spiritual connection as well. Just as our physical and social needs seek satisfaction, so the spiritual instincts of the human animal are expressed in images we form to evoke an emotional or spiritual response, as in our dreams, myths, and religious traditions.

The author draws upon the work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies to elucidate the archetypal imagination in literary forms. To underscore the importance of incarnating depth experience, he also examines a series of paintings by Nancy Witt.

With the power of the archetypal imagination available to all of us, we are invited to summon courage to take on the world anew, to relinquish outmoded identities and defenses, and to risk a radical reimagining of the larger possibilities of the world and of the self.

©2000 James Hollis (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This book on archetypal imagination is a feast of poetic and artistic references to the numinosity of the imagination." ( Journal of Analytical Psychology)
"Those interested in Jungian psychology, spirituality, and healing will appreciate...this book." ( Review of Texas Books)
"Hollis has written a brief, elegant, and well-crafted volume that looks at aspects of the archetypal imagination." ( Choice)

What listeners say about The Archetypal Imagination

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