Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its Intelligent Uses

by James Hillman

In the boldest expose on the nature of power since  Machiavelli, celebrated Jungian therapist James  Hillman shows how the artful leader uses each of two  dozen kinds of power with finesse and subtlety.  Power, we often forget, has many faces, many  different expressions. "Empowerment," writes  best-selling Jungian analyst James Hillman,  "comes from understanding the widest spectrum of  possibilities for embracing power." If food  means only meat and potatoes, your body suffers from  your ignorance. When your idea of food expands, so  does your strength. So it is with power.  "James Hillman," says Robert Bly, "is the  most lively and original psychologist we have had  in America since William James." In   Kinds Of Power , Hillman addresses  himself for the first time to a subject of great  interest to business people. He gives much needed  substance to the subject by showing us a broad  experience of power, rooted in the body, the rnind, and the  emotions, rather than the customary narrow  interpretation that simply equates power with strength.  Hillman's "anatomy" of power explores  two dozen expressions of power every artful leader  must understand and use, the language of  power, control, influence, resistance, leadership,  prestige, authority, exhibitionism, charisma,  ambition, reputation, fearsomeness, tyranny, purism,  subtle power, growth, and efficiency.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

James Hillman (1926-2011) was an American psychologist. He served in the US Navy Hospital Corps from 1944 to 1946, after which he attended the Sorbonne in Paris, studying English Literature, and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a degree in mental and moral science in 1950.

In 1959, he received his PhD from the University of Zurich, as well as his analyst's diploma from the C.G. Jung Institute and founded a movement toward archetypal psychology, was then appointed as Director of Studies at the institute, a position he held until 1969.

In 1970, Hillman became editor of Spring Publications, a publishing company devoted to advancing Archetypal Psychology as well as publishing books on mythology, philosophy and art. His magnum opus, Re-visioning Psychology, was written in 1975 and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Hillman then helped co-found the Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture in 1978.

Retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Connecticut on October 27, 2011 from bone cancer.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Hillman is often thought of as a demanding and difficult writer -- in need of being "popularized" by someone like Thomas Moore ("Care of the Soul") to reach a wider audience. And there may be some truth to this, but Hillman can also be remarkably accessible, as in this thought-provoking book on the "intelligent uses" of power.

We may think that power needs no explanation. It is what it is. But, as Hillman points out, that belief gives it unconscious power over us. Never examining power, we do not see the many ways it permeates our daily lives, influencing our behavior and our choices. If we think of power as "force," we do not appreciate its subtler uses, e.g., influence, authority, or energy, and we do not see that problems about power may have a wide array of solutions.

Hillman is fascinated by words, because words represent ideas; embedded in words are the entire histories of ideas. He is also fascinated by the process of "entertaining" ideas, and this book is a record of one brilliant and mercurial mind entertaining the idea of power, examining the many ways we can look at it (he devotes a chapter to each of 24 "kinds of power"), as well as the way its various meanings govern how we see the world around us. For instance, ideas about power lead individuals or groups of people to regard themselves as disempowered (victims); ideas about power may underlie the desire to own guns.

Because economic power rules the lives of almost everyone (yet another idea about power), Hillman directs his book to anyone involved with businesss. And he means business in the broadest sense of that word -- anyone whose life is structured by the getting and spending of money. Looking into mythology for insights into the psychology of power, he opens up this subject as therapist and patient might do in a series of 50-minute sessions. It's not a how-to book, but rather a journey, taking the reader across a landscape (both personal and collective) that offers many new and freeing perspectives.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hillman is a gifted Neo-Jungian revisionist who is engaging, although not without being crazy at times. This timely warning about the destructive lust for power that soaks the soul of today is well done. A favorite quote that captures the zeitgeist: "Economics is our contemporary theology, regardless of how we spend Sunday. Economics is the only effective syncretistic cult remaining in the world today, our world's only ecumenical faith. It provides the daily ritual, uniting Christian, Hindu, Mormon, atheist, Buddhist, Sikh, Adventist, animist, evangelist, Muslim, Jew, fundamentalist and New Ager in the common temple, admitting all alike, [and] from which the money changers have not been thrown out."

[Eleanor Cowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyebrows arching implication, Jake hands me the shabby taped-up coil removed from the electrical box downstairs.
“Time to say goodbye to that necktie!” he laughs, adding that he’s installed new, well-coated cable.
In 'Kinds of Power', Jungian scholar, James Hillman, says that the Razzle Dazzle Age of Heroism is now over. Gone. Instead, without award or recognition, the Age of Simple Service is upon us. It’s all about attendance to details now – the minutiae of our own daily lives.
Who gets called when the toilet’s plugged in the Board Room, the CEO or the plumber? Yes, its Jake with the metal snake - no matter what corruption is shushed – or flushed – at the glossy meeting table.
Sporting brooms and dustpans, wrenches and nails, the maintenance staff sail all manner of metaphor about the wisdom of daily dusting. (Using a soft cloth, not a sledge hammer)
A dozen well-groomed executives breathe easy at their meeting? The air technician zapped the first twinkling of bacterial mold well before Legionnaire’s Disease could manifest. Spot on.
On the bus to a meditation center, I noticed an elderly lady tap on the cold passenger door. The big, burly driver glanced down, shifted gears, and drove off - but only after the ample five seconds I’d had to point my feminist umbrage and insist he do the right thing for a senior citizen on a winter’s day. Poor janitor – poor hero. Glad for Hillman's sparkling reminders!
Eleanor Cowan, author of : A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer

[Steve Greenleaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Hillman's Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its Intelligent Uses was first published in 1995. I read it some years ago, probably closer to the time of publication, but I re-read it just in the last couple of days. I was prompted to do so after looking at some books on leadership recommend. In addition to popular books that I pulled from a couple of lists, I added Kinds of Power to Garry Wills's Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership and Leadership & Self-Deception. None of these three books were on the couple of lists that I reviewed, but each is a significant omission, which is not to diss the books that did make the popular lists, such as Delores Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals and Daniel Goleman's work on emotional intelligence in leadership.


Hillman's book has a chapter of "leadership", but it places the issue within the context of power. Hillman was (d. 2011) a prominent voice in the tradition of Jungian psychology, and to my mind, a brilliant and engaging writer. His references range from Greek and Roman myths and etymologies to Michael Jackson & Bill Clinton. Easy to read but deeply thought. In his knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman culture, Hillman matches Wills in this mastery of these cultures, and the ability to apply those insights to the contemporary world.


Hillman's work are always thought-provoking, and readers, I'm confident readers will find recognizable examples in his many discussions. By the way, Kinds of Power was published by Doubleday/Currency, which is (or was--who can keep up with changes in publishers?) a business imprint that published some unique and worthwhile books. And while Hillman's erudition is staggering, he wrote this as for a business audience, making it accessible to a most readers .


Some samplers:


As in a garden or a marriage, deepening brings ugly twisted things out of the soil. It’s a work in the dirt.


Hillman, James, Kinds of Power (Kindle Locations 596-597)


We become artists only when we enjoy the practicing as much as the performing. Until then we are caught by the limelight rather than the art. . . . Over and over again, not to get it finally right, not for the sake of perfection, but simply doing it as if for its own sake, freed from having to do it. The work working by itself, mechanically, repetitiously, impersonally. Could this idea of disinterested repetitiveness— one of the highest aims of Zen, mystical contemplation and religious practice, as well as the practice of the arts and sports— transfer to administration, sales, production, accounting?


Hillman, James, Kinds of Power (Kindle Locations 675-681)


Even more curious: why are the conflicts about power so ruthless— less so in business and politics [and I'd add sports--sng], where they are an everyday matter, than in the idealist professions of clergy, medicine, the arts, teaching and nursing. Those embattled in academic struggles and in museum and hospital fights deceive, backbite, threaten and maneuver shamelessly. They will not speak with friends of their enemies. Cabals form. Hatchet men appointed. Revenge plotted. Yet in business and politics [and I'd add the practice of law--sng] competitors for much larger stakes still go off to the golf course, eat and drink together. In business and politics, it seems, there is less idealism and more sense of shadow. Power is not repressed but lived with as a daily companion; moreover, it is not declared to be the enemy of love.


Hillman, James, Kinds of Power (Kindle Locations 1181-1187)

This last quote really struck home, not just because of its reference to academics and and its contrast to politics, law, and sports (in my opinion), but it reminds me that one of the nastiest employment situations I dealt with as a lawyer involved a humane society! It became apparent to me that all of the kindness was used up on the animals and none left for the members & workers. It was weird in a way. In this situation and others like it (education providing many other examples for me), the magnitude of the stakes were inversely proportional to the intensity of the emotions. The common denominator was that these were not powerful people (or at least they did not perceive themselves as powerful).


What I've written done justice to Hillman's greater project of "psychologyzing" how we view ourselves and our world. To him, we humans and our world have a soul, this is, a way of experiencing the world that is symbolic, feeling, changing, and elusive. We must look at a phenomenon like power through this lens to appreciate its many manifestations and changing character. And this is what Hillman does brilliantly, avoiding definition and instead providing stories and observations, from the world of the Greek and Roman gods to Mick Jagger and Abe Lincoln, for examples. It's a wild ride sometimes, but when I reflected upon it, I realized the deep insights that he as culled from this complex word and phenomena.

[Giulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interessante oltre le aspettative: un punto di vista originale, mostrato in una trattazione accurata, approfondita, che lascia soddisfatti. Un manuale per ripensare i rapporti di potere e il potere stesso nella società che evolvé è, chissà, nella propria vita personale. Penso che lo rileggerò prima o poi.

[Ruhegeist]

If his book Insearch reads well, I may check this book out.

[Luca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tratti piacevole, rivelatore e interessante così come assente, noioso e lontano, ma certamente da leggere e rileggere.

[Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

His worst. Just say ‘No’.

[Mario D'Andreta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una magistrale guida al senso del potere, attraverso l'analisi delle idee del potere e del potere delle idee.