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Hermes and His Children
Hermes and his Children has become something of a classic among therapists, poets, artists and readers of many callings. Rafael López-Pedraza approaches the soul through myth, pathology, image and the very living of them all. The love and passion of a man fully in his element radiates throughout this unique work, now updated and expanded for this edition.
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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March 16, 2015
Written for therapists, and interesting for anyone who’s into mythological figures as archetypes. I’ll post some quotes I liked.
The book had a lot of interesting things to say about sexuality, which isn’t surprising as it was written in the 70s at the height of the “sexual revolution” (and the book feels a bit dated in that regard). The book also deals with certain Greek gods who have a “freakish” (the author’s word) sexual stance, such as Hermaphroditus, a.ka. Priapus, whose archetypal presence in a person’s life seems to compel them to odd physical mannerisms and unusual sexual interests – as well as a strong artistic aptitude. The quotes I post will focus on other topics.
Quotes from Hermes and His Children:
Primary theme of the book:
“As a psychotherapist, naturally my reflections come from my practice of a psychotherapy that gives first rank to Hermes and whose main concern is with psychic movement: - either we move psychically or we stagnate.” Pg. 11
“I simply want to suggest that a hermetic psychotherapy has neither aim, goal, purposefulness nor meaning, all of which can bring life to a standstill; the only concern of Hermes as lord of the roads is to move along the new roads of the psyche, and that the psyche moves.” Pg. 168
On “The Borderline”:
“We have discussed the borderline aspect, a characteristic which in himself makes him different from the other gods, who seem to be the center of the specific aspects of life to which they give imprint. Hermes permeates the whole world because of his ability to make connections. From his borderline, he connects to the sphere’s of the other gods and has psychic commerce with them. He is the connection-maker, and he is the messenger of the gods.” Pp. 23-24
“Hermes’ borderline aspect favors his friendliness, or, to put it in more archetypal terms: He is the friendliest to the other gods. He does not fight with the other gods and goddesses when they are busy fighting among themselves. Hermes does not need to fight for his center; he does not have one. If we internalize Hermes’ friendly side, then it is Hermes in us who befriends our psychological complexes centered by the other gods. We can imagine a person going along the roads of life (or psychotherapy) protected by Hermes, at times in fear of the road, its darkness, and its desolation. We feel afraid of our solitude; we feel alone more often than we realize. It is precisely in these moments that Hermes makes his epiphany, when we feel that instinctual primitiveness…” Pg. 24
On Depression:
“Depression was important to Jung’s healing process, and those of us who have profited from his teaching know that psychological movement and a state of depression are connected. It is as if it were a pause on nature’s part that makes it possible for consciousness to grasp new unconscious contents.” Pg. 106
“This is commonplace in our modern technological society, a sort of healing that does not allow even the minimum time for the psyche to become aware of what is happening to its own nature and body. To rest, repose, and to depress have become the most difficult of achievements. In reality, we need the mood of ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday,’ to provide a drop of the depression and its imagery that is so lacking. Without depression we cannot exist; it is a basic component of life; it is archetypal. Depression has become desperate so to speak, seeking an outlet that is easily discerned in psychological tensions and conflicts, and in psychosomatic conditions. Only a minority of healers are concerned with this situation: the odd psychotherapist who, in his standard work, includes the slow incubatory movement of the psyche, the process of slowing down; depression is central to any healing process. Nevertheless, depression is also an illness, according to its quantity and complexity in a person. It can be a psychic depression, a sign of serious psychosomatic illness, or a sign of imminent death.” Pg. 105
On Envy and Jealousy:
“Reading Walcott, one realizes that, in Greek culture, envy was not a capital sin as in Christianity; instead there was an awareness of its complexities and implications. Ostracism was the penalty for someone who caused too much envy. This shows how conscious they must have been of it. One can imagine Hermes vanishing whenever envy is constellated; he sees its evil aspect as did the Greeks. … Evidently no envious character appears in Greek tragedy; it was considered too villainous, and therefore unsuitable.” Pg. 81
“This pretentious denial of jealousy can be added to the repressive onesidedness of modern man. So jealousy, such a fundamental emotion in human relations, takes its revenge from below and, from one day to the next, destroys the relationship under the unconscious guise of the most handy pretext. At other times, the revenge comes in the nature of depressions and psychosomatizations. By tactfully welcoming jealousy into psychotherapy, we are moving the psychotherapeutic situation into an acceptance of one of the most repressed emotions. It has happened more than once that through jealousy the patient begins to understand his inner emotions, opening the way to compensation.” Pg. 115
“As we mentioned before, the other gods were caught by the situation; it appeared to them more as a concretized reality. For the other gods to fantasize a delicate situation such as Hermes can is beyond their archetypal range. They do not have that quality of Hermes which enables him to enter a sexual fantasy (including its sexual reality, if you will) and know how to emerge again. (Hermes gave Ulysses the moly, which enabled him to approach Circe and not get caught in her machinations.) Hermes’ ease and lack of embarrassment, when he accepts the idea of going to bed with Aphrodite in front of all the other gods and goddesses, reveals a nature basically able to deal with Jealousy. He is able to enter the fantasy of the situation psychologically, accept being one of the components in the threesome and, in spite of this, can re-emerge from the situation.” Pp. 116-117
On Panic:
“Pan is the god of panic, and it is in this manifestation of his pathology that Pan can panic both analyst and patient. Panic in the analytical situation can either be of value within the spectrum of a healing epiphany of this god, or can become uncontrollable, bringing misunderstanding, and at worst, catastrophic results.” Pg. 140
“When reacting to a patient’s nightmare, there is a difference between trying to analyze it and accepting it as the epiphany of a god under one of his surnames, Ephialtes.” Pg. 140
On “concretized genealogy” vs. “archetypal genealogy”:
“For those who prefer to live a psychotherapy more on the lines of the epiphany of the gods and the archetypes, a basic knowledge of, and feeling for Who’s Who in mythology is needed.” Pg. 147
“Psychotherapy has inherited the stress on concretized genealogy. The limitation of a concretized personal genealogy can compress the personality. We can see that psychotherapy has been overburdened by the literalized aspect of the conflicts and traumas of the family complex. So, while accepting this kind of reality, we can also try to detect the underlying archetypal genealogy of the patient. This approach provides two possibilities. Firstly, the patient is released in some measure from the pressures of the personal genealogy, and secondly, a new or unexpected course in psychotherapy and life is propitiated.” Pg. 154
“We need to improve our reading of the classical image in order to arrive at a genealogy more fitting for psychotherapy; to move away from the suffocation of concretized personal genealogy, and to refresh psychotherapy with a genealogy more suited to the psychological personality of the patient. For this we must train ourselves to search out the archetypal form of life given for, and by, the patient’s psyche. We must discover this other genealogy of the gods and goddesses, of which the patient is a child, and thus open the way for psychic movement within the range of the given archetypal possibilities.” Pp. 154-155
The book had a lot of interesting things to say about sexuality, which isn’t surprising as it was written in the 70s at the height of the “sexual revolution” (and the book feels a bit dated in that regard). The book also deals with certain Greek gods who have a “freakish” (the author’s word) sexual stance, such as Hermaphroditus, a.ka. Priapus, whose archetypal presence in a person’s life seems to compel them to odd physical mannerisms and unusual sexual interests – as well as a strong artistic aptitude. The quotes I post will focus on other topics.
Quotes from Hermes and His Children:
Primary theme of the book:
“As a psychotherapist, naturally my reflections come from my practice of a psychotherapy that gives first rank to Hermes and whose main concern is with psychic movement: - either we move psychically or we stagnate.” Pg. 11
“I simply want to suggest that a hermetic psychotherapy has neither aim, goal, purposefulness nor meaning, all of which can bring life to a standstill; the only concern of Hermes as lord of the roads is to move along the new roads of the psyche, and that the psyche moves.” Pg. 168
On “The Borderline”:
“We have discussed the borderline aspect, a characteristic which in himself makes him different from the other gods, who seem to be the center of the specific aspects of life to which they give imprint. Hermes permeates the whole world because of his ability to make connections. From his borderline, he connects to the sphere’s of the other gods and has psychic commerce with them. He is the connection-maker, and he is the messenger of the gods.” Pp. 23-24
“Hermes’ borderline aspect favors his friendliness, or, to put it in more archetypal terms: He is the friendliest to the other gods. He does not fight with the other gods and goddesses when they are busy fighting among themselves. Hermes does not need to fight for his center; he does not have one. If we internalize Hermes’ friendly side, then it is Hermes in us who befriends our psychological complexes centered by the other gods. We can imagine a person going along the roads of life (or psychotherapy) protected by Hermes, at times in fear of the road, its darkness, and its desolation. We feel afraid of our solitude; we feel alone more often than we realize. It is precisely in these moments that Hermes makes his epiphany, when we feel that instinctual primitiveness…” Pg. 24
On Depression:
“Depression was important to Jung’s healing process, and those of us who have profited from his teaching know that psychological movement and a state of depression are connected. It is as if it were a pause on nature’s part that makes it possible for consciousness to grasp new unconscious contents.” Pg. 106
“This is commonplace in our modern technological society, a sort of healing that does not allow even the minimum time for the psyche to become aware of what is happening to its own nature and body. To rest, repose, and to depress have become the most difficult of achievements. In reality, we need the mood of ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday,’ to provide a drop of the depression and its imagery that is so lacking. Without depression we cannot exist; it is a basic component of life; it is archetypal. Depression has become desperate so to speak, seeking an outlet that is easily discerned in psychological tensions and conflicts, and in psychosomatic conditions. Only a minority of healers are concerned with this situation: the odd psychotherapist who, in his standard work, includes the slow incubatory movement of the psyche, the process of slowing down; depression is central to any healing process. Nevertheless, depression is also an illness, according to its quantity and complexity in a person. It can be a psychic depression, a sign of serious psychosomatic illness, or a sign of imminent death.” Pg. 105
On Envy and Jealousy:
“Reading Walcott, one realizes that, in Greek culture, envy was not a capital sin as in Christianity; instead there was an awareness of its complexities and implications. Ostracism was the penalty for someone who caused too much envy. This shows how conscious they must have been of it. One can imagine Hermes vanishing whenever envy is constellated; he sees its evil aspect as did the Greeks. … Evidently no envious character appears in Greek tragedy; it was considered too villainous, and therefore unsuitable.” Pg. 81
“This pretentious denial of jealousy can be added to the repressive onesidedness of modern man. So jealousy, such a fundamental emotion in human relations, takes its revenge from below and, from one day to the next, destroys the relationship under the unconscious guise of the most handy pretext. At other times, the revenge comes in the nature of depressions and psychosomatizations. By tactfully welcoming jealousy into psychotherapy, we are moving the psychotherapeutic situation into an acceptance of one of the most repressed emotions. It has happened more than once that through jealousy the patient begins to understand his inner emotions, opening the way to compensation.” Pg. 115
“As we mentioned before, the other gods were caught by the situation; it appeared to them more as a concretized reality. For the other gods to fantasize a delicate situation such as Hermes can is beyond their archetypal range. They do not have that quality of Hermes which enables him to enter a sexual fantasy (including its sexual reality, if you will) and know how to emerge again. (Hermes gave Ulysses the moly, which enabled him to approach Circe and not get caught in her machinations.) Hermes’ ease and lack of embarrassment, when he accepts the idea of going to bed with Aphrodite in front of all the other gods and goddesses, reveals a nature basically able to deal with Jealousy. He is able to enter the fantasy of the situation psychologically, accept being one of the components in the threesome and, in spite of this, can re-emerge from the situation.” Pp. 116-117
On Panic:
“Pan is the god of panic, and it is in this manifestation of his pathology that Pan can panic both analyst and patient. Panic in the analytical situation can either be of value within the spectrum of a healing epiphany of this god, or can become uncontrollable, bringing misunderstanding, and at worst, catastrophic results.” Pg. 140
“When reacting to a patient’s nightmare, there is a difference between trying to analyze it and accepting it as the epiphany of a god under one of his surnames, Ephialtes.” Pg. 140
On “concretized genealogy” vs. “archetypal genealogy”:
“For those who prefer to live a psychotherapy more on the lines of the epiphany of the gods and the archetypes, a basic knowledge of, and feeling for Who’s Who in mythology is needed.” Pg. 147
“Psychotherapy has inherited the stress on concretized genealogy. The limitation of a concretized personal genealogy can compress the personality. We can see that psychotherapy has been overburdened by the literalized aspect of the conflicts and traumas of the family complex. So, while accepting this kind of reality, we can also try to detect the underlying archetypal genealogy of the patient. This approach provides two possibilities. Firstly, the patient is released in some measure from the pressures of the personal genealogy, and secondly, a new or unexpected course in psychotherapy and life is propitiated.” Pg. 154
“We need to improve our reading of the classical image in order to arrive at a genealogy more fitting for psychotherapy; to move away from the suffocation of concretized personal genealogy, and to refresh psychotherapy with a genealogy more suited to the psychological personality of the patient. For this we must train ourselves to search out the archetypal form of life given for, and by, the patient’s psyche. We must discover this other genealogy of the gods and goddesses, of which the patient is a child, and thus open the way for psychic movement within the range of the given archetypal possibilities.” Pp. 154-155
March 1, 2016
This is a book intended to be read by practicing psychotherapists. There are insights about Hermes, but if you're not specifically interested in post-Jungian psychotherapy in the 80s (the last chapter has a dated-feeling look at symbolism of rape and transsexuality) you can get most of the same and more from Kerenyi's "Hermes: Guide of Souls."
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