Suicide and the Soul

by James Hillman

With this book Hillman initiated the soul movement in psychotherapy forty years ago.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Mental Illness

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part One of this book is excellent. Part Two is just repetitive filler.

Part One should be required reading for students of psychology, medicine, and the law.

However, I disagree with one of Hillman's assertions: that an analyst can be the only one who truly understands the reasons for a suicide. He believes that the suicidal person is not objective enough to be fully conscious of all the motivations and factors involved.

The suicidal person may not be objective enough, true, but an objective person cannot be aware of and cannot grasp certain unspoken nuances that will never be known by someone else. That is, there will always be mysteries that the suicidal person understands about themselves but others will never comprehend, and there will always be mysteries that the suicidal person does not understand about themselves and others do not comprehend either.

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another COMPLETELY spellbinding read from the CRANKY/WILD/MERCURIAL/REVOLUTIONARY spirit of James Hillman.

SURVIVAL AND REPRODUCTION

Darwin changed humanity when he synthesized the theory of evolution via natural and sexual selection. And argued that HUMANS were SIMPLY part of that CHAIN of BEING/LIFE.

SUBLIMATION AND REPRESSION

Freud changed humanity AGAIN when he posited that the same UNCONSCIOUS survival and reproductive instincts that drive animal behavior, also drive human PSYCHOLOGY.

One of Freuds MOST widely DISMISSED ideas was that people have a DEATH instinct. However, considering the regularity of mass shootings and suicides lately.

The idea somehow seems eerily PRESCIENT and IMPORTANT.

SUCIDE

Hillman posits that people are driven to suicide and homicide due to INTERMINABLE SOUL PAIN/CRISIS.

If this sounds A LITTLE IRRESPONSIBLE.

You’re probably a therapist.

Or someone who has been affected by these issues.

Or both.

Let me assure you.

Hillman in NO WAY makes light of these issues.

But he does think about them CRITICALLY/CREATIVELY.

Which ALSO seems eerily PRESCIENT and IMPORTANT.

THE SOUL

Hillman is highly AVERSE/CAUTIOUS to DEFINE things. As such, he is EXTREMELY HESITANT to DEFINE the SOUL. However, he will say that SOUL is DOWN, as opposed to SPIRIT which is UP. To Hillman, the SOUL is the DEEPLY FELT, HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL experience of LIFE we KNOW to be our DEEPEST SELF. MORE like SOUL TRAIN, or SOUL FOOD, and less like the IMMORTAL SOUL of ETERNAL SALVATION.

THERAPY

What DOES someone DO with INTERMINABLE SOUL PAIN/CRISIS? Hillman posits that MAKING AND ENLIVENING THE SOUL are the proper MISSION of DEPTH PSYCHOANALYSIS.

ALCHEMY

Hillman posits that ARCHETYPE is the language the SOUL, and that ALCHEMY describes the process of SOUL MAKING. Whereby, spiritual LEAD is TRANSFORMED to SOUL GOLD via the process of ego DEATH/DISSOLUTION/REBIRTH/REPEAT.

ONTOGENY RECAPITULATES PHYLOGENY

The phrase (coined by 19th century biologist Ernst Haeckel) suggests that the embryonic development of an organism (ontogeny) retraces the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of its species.

ONTOLOGY RECAPITULATES PHILOLOGY

This phrase (coined by contemporary philosopher James Grier Miller) suggests that our perception of the world (ontology), evolve with the language that we speak, and the technology that we create and use (philology).

PSYCHOLOGY RECAPITULATES MYTHOLOGY

The phrase (coined by no one in particular, but it’s still cool as fuck) suggests that the mind and behavior, and the lifetime development of the individual (psychology), mirrors the archetypes and myths (mythology) of the culture and epoch.

Hillman (I think) would agree with that.

But he would be careful not to CONFLATE the DAY-WORLD BIOLOGICAL and UNDERWORLD PSYCHOLOGICAL domains.

Hillman writes “the soul's ontogeny hardly recapitulates biological phylogeny, even if our intellects must use biological metaphors for descriptions. Psychic growth is paradoxically a growth against a life conceived too naïvely. Growth of the soul would be through death. No, it is not growth, but rather as the Buddha said in his last words: Decay is inherent in all component things. Work at your salvation with diligence."

GO OFF KING!

Hillman is a GREAT CREATIVE INTELLECTUAL.

Loved this book.

And LITERALLY everything else he wrote.

5/5 STARS ⭐️

[Barbaraw - su anobii aussi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cito soltanto:
"(Jung) ha scoperto che la morte ha molte sembianze e che nella psiche non si presenta in quanto tale, come estinzione, negazione, fine di tutto. Nei sogni e nelle fantasie, le immagini e le idee della morte hanno tutt'altri significati. L'anima attraversa molte esperienze di morte, eppure la vita fisica continua; e quando la vita fisica si avvicina al suo termine, spesso l'anima produce immagini ed esperienze che indicano continuità. Si direbbe che il processo di costruzione della coscienza sia senza fine. Per la psiche, nè l'immortalità è un dato di fatto né la morte è una fine. "
Il testo di Hillman rovescia i punti vista. Vale la pena leggerlo.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressed by his Suicide and the Soul, I went to hear Hillman speak at The International House in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in Manhattan. As a speaker, he wasn't memorable, but his refusal to see the suicide option as necessarily pathological or morally wrong was refreshing. As Nietzsche put it: "The thought of suicide has seen me through many a hard night."--or something like that.

[Nick K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated his point of view on an extremely sensitive subject. I thought he made valid strong points about how society turns depression into a sort of villain and how structures of society (medical, law, etc) work against any sort of discussion about suicide and how it is a widespread common feeling at some points of our life. I think his language appeals more towards individuals with an understanding of academic psychology study, which closes out a population of people who could benefit from the views of the book. I also worry that some people might take the book the wrong way and see it as validating the action of suicide, when what he is trying to do is promote a healthy discussion and view of it. Which will help us to better understand it and erase any negative stigma place upon individuals who feel like it's their only way out. Ultimately leading to better treatment of suicidal feelings and lessening isolation.

[Suzanne Rodriguez]

" Who are any of us to determine whether a person's pain is or is not too much for the individual to handle. if its too much then its the courageous thing to exterminate yourself. Why live when your dying on the inside. But I haven't finished the book yet, but my opinion remains the same.

[Homayoun Saeid]

It's been quite some time since Dr. Hillman's notion of depathologizing the suicide instinct went into print, yet, there are few, if any clinical settings into which his ideas have manged to change the standard of practice.

[Hagar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The impulse to death need not be conceived as an anti-life movement; it may be a demand for an encounter with absolute reality, a demand for a fuller life through the death experience.

Without dread, without the prejudices of prepared positions, without a pathological bias, suicide becomes 'natural'. It is natural because it is a possibility of our nature, a choice open to each human psyche. The analyst's concern is less with the suicidal choice as such, than it is with helping the other person to understand the meaning of this choice, the only one which asks directly for the death experience.

A main meaning of the choice is the importance of death for individuality. As individuality grows so does the possibility of suicide. Sociology and theology recognise this, as we have seen. Where man is law unto himself, responsible to himself for his own actions (as in the culture of cities, in the unloved child, in protestant areas, in creative people), the choice of death becomes a more frequent alternative. In this choice of death, of course, the opposite lies concealed. Until we can choose death, we cannot choose life. Until we can say no to life, we have not really said yes to it, but have only been carried along by its collective stream. The individual standing against this current experiences death as the first of all alternatives, for he who goes against the stream of life is its opponent and has become identified with death. Again, the death experience is needed to separate from the collective flow of life and to discover individuality.

Individuality requires courage. And courage has since classic times been linked with suicide arguments: it takes courage to choose the ordeal of life, and it takes courage to enter the unknown by one's own decision. Some choose life because they are afraid of death and others choose death because they are afraid of life. We cannot justly assess courage or cowardice from the outside. But we can understand why the problem of suicide raises these questions of courage, since the suicide issue forces one to find his individual stand on the basic question to be or not to be. The courage to be—as it is modishly called—means not just choosing life out there. The real choice is choosing oneself, one's individual truth, including the ugliest man, as Nietzsche called the evil within. To continue life, knowing what a horror one is, takes indeed courage. And not a few suicides may arise from an overwhelming experience of one's own evil, an insight coming more readily to the creatively gifted, the psychologically sensitive, and the schizoid. Then who is the coward and who casts the first stone? The rest of us brutish men who go about dulled to our own shadows."

[Mark Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Hillman's so on to it, so clear headed and lucid. It's in the same class as two of his best, We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy & the World's Getting Worse and Healing Fiction. Stirring, compelling and revealing.

That the thought of suicide comes when there's need for transformation and change so humanizes and paints a different portrait of the individual who's suffering and looking for solutions. The kind of psychotherapy Hillman practices must be emulated and a template for the profession.

[Stanislao Montanari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un tentativo patetico di dare credito all’analisi screditando la medicina.
Mentre leggevo questo libro pensavo: “ma come mai tutto questo complesso di inferiorità nei confronti dei medici da parte di Hillman?”… per fortuna che sono arrivato alla fine e ho letto il post scriptum di 35 anni dopo. “Dunque questo libro mette in scena anche la lotta del suo autore con l’ombra della medicina”.
Libro con spunti interessanti ma appunto ho notato un forte distacco fra psicoterapia e medicina che l’autore non mancava di evidenziare ogni due pagine. Sembrava una sorta di delirio megalomanico della figura dell’analista nei confronti del medico (e anche del paziente). Arrivare a dire che l’analista ha più voce in capitolo in termini di suicidio rispetto a un medico mi sembra un’affermazione molto forte. Arrivare a dire che l’analista capisce meglio il suicidio del suicida è per me fuori da ogni ragione.
Probabilmente è un giudizio figlio dell’epoca in cui è stato pubblicato, in cui la psichiatria era considerata in un certo modo molto diverso da oggi, dove il medico di cure palliative era una figura meno rappresentata, dove la psicoterapia era additata come misticismo e senza fondamento scientifico. Oggi le cose sono un po’ diverse, probabilmente Hillman non avrebbe covato tutta questa frustrazione (glielo auguro!).
Altrettanto ridicolo credo sia dire che è stato questo libro a fungere da “revival” per la figura dell’anima, vedi delirio megalomanico sopracitato.
Alcune cose appunto interessanti, altre mi sembravano un po’ forzate. Nel complesso un libro carino ma questa saccenza di sottofondo mi ha irritato per tutta la durata della lettura.

[Anthony B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound Insights into Life and Death

This book will make you think about suicide, life, despair, and even Absolute Reality, God, in new ways, and, most importantly, in ways that will banish materialistic conclusions about Life. Dated and written before Panpsychism opened our eyes about Consciousness and Reality, it is still one of the most important books one can study.

[yo JP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obšírné. Spíše se hodící pro studenty z oboru psychoanalýzy, aby chápali lépe "šablonu svého poselství". Ale pro mě to celou dobu bylo trochu jako ten joke Norma Macdonalda o sebevraždě, kde paroduje lidi co vždycky říkají o někom, kdo se zabil "já to nechápu" ("You don't? You don't know about life? How it only disappoints and gets worse and worse until it ends in catastrophe?"). Hillman by očividně dokázal napsat knihu i o jogurtovým kelímku, kde by rozebral absolutně každej atom, ale z informativního hlediska si připadám, že se tu hodně mele a vlastně nic neřekne, že to mohlo mít tak dvacet stránek a nemuselo se to točit pořád dokola jako hardbass káča. Obsah mi neseděl, styl mi neseděl, vše podstatné za stránku je pak stejně zvýrazněno kurzívou ve větě, která shrne tři, čtyři odstavce. Pro muže je život boj, je to jeho identita. Nekonečný boj o status. V čem vidím často problém na téma sebevraždy je, když se člověk identifikuje jako oběť (něco se mu stalo "...nevíme co. No to je jedno." -Krobot, Dabing Street), ale pointa je často v roli, jakou člověk přijme. Mně hodně pomohlo, když jsem slyšel, že muž nepotřebuje být šťastný, dokud má nějaký cíl, nějaký způsob, něco, za čím kráčet, nějaký smysl, který ho za něčím žene. Taky mi pomohlo přijmout fakt, a myslím si, že jsem to věděl ještě předtím, ale skvěle to shrnul Sam Hyde, že muž zkrátka musí přijmout to, že nebude většinu života šťastný, že většinu života prožije v bolesti. De facto tahle doktrína, že musíme být happy, to je pro děti a ženy a je to propaganda, která vás stáhne do mizérie. Já v to už zkrátka nevěřím, ve štěstí... a vím velice dobře, že v to nevěří, ani to neprožívá drtivá většina mužů a dost možná nejvíc ti, co to musí říkat a dokazovat nejčastěji (protože jsou nucení lhát a tím pádem jsou tlačení do zoufalství, protože nemůžou mít sebeúctu). Muž je příliš busy bojem, ať jste v té nejnuznější pozici, vždycky je vaší identitou nějaká forma boje. A ženy tlačí muže k tomu, aby takoví byli, protože jedině tímhle vybičováním se dospěje k tomu, že pro sebe získají nejlepší možnost a příležitost (k lepšímu životu a k tomu, co chtějí, což jdou dvě věci: 1. víc, 2. něco jiného). Tím chci jen říct, že mužova bojovnost, coby identita, je to, co mu propůjčuje lepší mentální štít, protože musí odjakživa odolávat vlivům, takže když se rozhodne pro sebevraždu, což v mnoha případech zcela chápu, většinou je znatelně úspěšnější, než ženy, u kterých to odráží jejich teatrálnost, která jen maskuje jejich ješitnost (reálně to často nechtějí udělat doopravdy, chtějí jen strhnout pozornost, aby je někdo zachránil, aby se někdo zajímal, což je hrozně vtipný, když si uvědomím, kolik mužů je lidem absolutně u prdele, kolik osamocených, "I KNOW YOU" -Henry Rollins). Ale často mi přijde, že akt je impulsivní, zejména u mladých (nedávno se ale i tady oběsila jedna hezká kočka, protože jí sebrali dítě ve prospěch muže), ale přesně takovým bych doporučil, stejně jako se to zmínilo i v téhle knize, kde se přirovnávala sebevražda ke spánku a přesně to je odpověď, někdy se jen potřebujete vyspat, pak se vzbudíte a nemusíte být mrtví, protože jste se včera cítili vynervovaní a rozhodli se to zabalit, dej si sprchu, jdi chrápat, shut up, nobody cares about anything anyway. Za mě život určitě není žádná výhra a je těžký najít na něm vůbec něco tu a tam... jenže, když přijmete, že prostě bolí, že prostě o tom to většinu času je, že lidi jsou falešní, že vy sami nelžete a máte integritu a jste jakž takž pracovití, že děláte malý věci, jakože ženský, nebo komukoliv, v práci pomůžete s něčím těžkým, ale vůbec o tom nepřemýšlíte, ani nevnímáte, že vám děkují... že nezašlápnete brouka na cestě, že kráčíte životem a nejste kunda, je v tom výhra, mít moct se na sebe podívat do zrcadla, protože se vsadím, že řada lidí se musí podívat a být jim minimálně na blití. A taky od toho se odvíjí i nemoc duše, sebeklam, nedostatečná sebe-otevřenost. Není to jen "potřebuješ víc sebelásky", jak ti někdo řekne, "jsem oukej, ale ty pořád mluvíš o sebelásce a pak jsi nemocná, protože tvoje kázání není založené na pravdě a pak se ti to karmicky odráží a vrací tady." Ale pokud to chcete zabalit, mělo by to mít silné odůvodnění. Je to akt, ktrerý vám přeci jen děsně rozesere karmu a za to si později děkovat nebudete, stejně jako si děkovat nebudete, že jste tím způsobili trauma všem bližním. Jak říkám, doporučuju se jít vyspat, což udělám i teď...

[Chiara]

"Non fu con voce di speranza che Gesù gridò: Elì, Elì, lamà sabactàni? (Mt., 27, 46). Il grido sulla croce è l'archetipo di ogni grido di aiuto. Vi risuona l'angoscia del tradimento, del sacrificio, della solitudine. Non è rimasto più nulla, nemmeno Dio. La mia unica certezza è la mia sofferenza, che chiedo sia allontanata da me con la morte. Una consapevolezza animale della sofferenza, e la piena identificazione con essa, diventano l'umiliante terreno della trasformazione. La disperazione fa entrare l'esperienza della morte ed è al tempo stesso il requisito per la resurrezione. La vita quale era prima, lo status quo ante, è morta quando è nata la disperazione. Esiste solo il momento così come è, il seme di ciò che verrà, quale che sia: se sapremo attendere. L'attesa è tutto e si attende insieme."

[Donald A Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening Read

I was first introduced to James Hillman's work through The Soul's Code. He has a way of presenting psychological concepts in a way a layman like me understands. This work is no different. I've often wondered if there was something more to suicidal ideation than mental illness. Something more going on than individual weakness per se. While his did discussion of suicide and the soul didn't lead to the hypothesis i thought it might lead the reader into considering, it nevertheless is a thought provoking and compassionate consideration. His afterword beautifully sums up for a literalist like me all that he was originally trying to present when he first published his thoughts on this subject.

[Andrew Feist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep and profound book. A great introduction to Hillman's thought and a great achievement of humanism (Hillman doesn't like the term, I realize) in the realm of mental health. Hillman takes an unrelenting approach to understand suicide and relevant issues for psychotherapy from the perspective of the soul. This maybe understood as something like from the subjective perspective of the individual, of we take not that their stated perspective is often of the ego, not their whole psyche. Again, Hillman clarifies this point poetically and clearly much better than I.

[Grazia Palmisano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro originale, interessante, che affronta la questione del suicidio da un punto di vista psicanalitico e psichiatrico, mettendo in relazione e anche in contrapposizione gli aspetti fisici e gli aspetti animici. Non mi è piaciuta molto la parte finale: il post scriptum ripensamenti, aggiunto dall'autore 35 anni dopo la pubblicazione originaria del libro. A mio avviso attenua e smorza un po' l'originalità e la forza della trattazione fin lì fatta

[Kaya Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blessing and a comfort.

[Lorenzo Tenisi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Il libro di tutto parla tranne di ciò di cui afferma di voler parlare. E ciò che dice viene espresso con una futile complicatezza che mi fa venire i nervi! :)

[Walter Lazzarin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Video recensione:
https://youtu.be/990lg2CmMH0

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst the target audience for this seems to be aspiring analysts, Hillman placed enough in this work for the layman to find both insightful and intriguing.

I did initially balk at his use of absolutes within a purely theoretical realm but these slowly started to make sense within the confines of his argument and I was utterly absorbed and inspired by the final ten 'secretive' pages.

[Sara-Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

magnificent. my highest recommendation.

[Anders · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and was not too impressed. sadly, I no longer really remember details.