The Myth of Analysis

Acclaimed Jungian James Hillman has published over twenty books on a wide range of issues related to contemporary psychology. Writing on topics as diverse as emotion, the nature of power, psychoanalysis, and human development, Hillman has been praised for his insight, his wit, and his unflinching and honest approach to his subjects. His stature as one of the most popular and readable of those writing about psychology today is indisputable.

In The Myth of Analysis, Hillman examines the concepts of myth, insight, eros, body, and the mytheme of female inferiority, as well as the need for the freedom to imagine and to feel psychic reality. By examining these ideas, and the role they have played both in and outside of the therapeutic setting, Hillman mounts a compelling argument that, rather than locking them away in some inner asylum or subjecting them to daily self-treatment, man's "peculiarities' can become an integral part of a rich and fulfilling daily life.

Originally published by Northwestern University Press in 1972, this work -- particularly the section "On Psychological Femininity' -- had a profound impact on a nation emerging self-aware from the 1960s, as well as on the era's burgeoning feminist movement and has never been out of print. The Myth of Analysis remains a profound critique of therapy and the psychological viewpoint, and it is one of Hillman's most important and enduring works.