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From Types to Images: Uniform Edition Vol. 4
Moving Jungian psychology from types to images, to an image-based archetypal psychology, is James Hillman’s concern in this volume. This volume leads from Hillman’s principal essay on typology, “Egalitarian Typologies versus the Perception of the Unique,” to his expansive “Inquiry into Image.”
Hillman instigates an active re-visioning, re-imagining, of psychology as a self-generative activity of the “An image is given by the imagining perspective and can only be perceived by an act of imagining.”
Hillman instigates an active re-visioning, re-imagining, of psychology as a self-generative activity of the “An image is given by the imagining perspective and can only be perceived by an act of imagining.”
- GenresPhilosophyArtPsychology
224 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2018
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About the author
James Hillman
175 books575 followersJames 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.
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.
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January 3, 2026
I am still working my way through Hillman’s oeuvre, but my preliminary assessment is that this book may well be one of the most welcoming entry points into the core of his archetypal psychology. Its focus lies squarely on the why and how of an imaginal practice, one that is necessarily therapeutic and potentially artistic.
The central question Hillman addresses is deceptively simple: how do we work with images in an imaginal way? An imaginal practice does not aim to solve problems, nor does it promise cure—though it may do so obliquely, or at least help us remain more or less sane. Rather, the process is an end in itself, one that makes us more fully human.
The key takeaways can be summarised as follows:
_Images are primary; symbols are abstractions derived from images.
_Meaning emerges from an image’s internal relations and context, not from external interpretation.
_“Archetypal” names a process of deepening, not a fixed category or taxonomy.
_Both therapy and art involve engaging images as complete, irreducible wholes: soul-making through image-making.
Hillman’s orientation here is more epistemological than metaphysical, which gives the text a certain lightness. Yet this does not negate his fundamental claim that we are in psyche, rather than psyche being in us. Psyche speaks through images, and images are therefore not about something; they are something. They call for a poietic, autotelic mode of invention and engagement. In that sense, yes, this is very much Vico if you like: imagination is not just a nice plug-in, but a primary way in which we co-constitute reality.
The central question Hillman addresses is deceptively simple: how do we work with images in an imaginal way? An imaginal practice does not aim to solve problems, nor does it promise cure—though it may do so obliquely, or at least help us remain more or less sane. Rather, the process is an end in itself, one that makes us more fully human.
The key takeaways can be summarised as follows:
_Images are primary; symbols are abstractions derived from images.
_Meaning emerges from an image’s internal relations and context, not from external interpretation.
_“Archetypal” names a process of deepening, not a fixed category or taxonomy.
_Both therapy and art involve engaging images as complete, irreducible wholes: soul-making through image-making.
Hillman’s orientation here is more epistemological than metaphysical, which gives the text a certain lightness. Yet this does not negate his fundamental claim that we are in psyche, rather than psyche being in us. Psyche speaks through images, and images are therefore not about something; they are something. They call for a poietic, autotelic mode of invention and engagement. In that sense, yes, this is very much Vico if you like: imagination is not just a nice plug-in, but a primary way in which we co-constitute reality.
Displaying 1 of 1 review