James Hollis, who lives in Houston, Texas, is a Jungian analyst and executive director of the C. G. Jung Educational
Center
of Houston.
Summary
"What we wish to know, and most desire, remains unknowable and lies beyond our grasp." With these
words, James Hollis leads readers to consider the nature of our human need for meaning in life and for connection
to a world less limiting than our own.
In The Archetypal Imagination, Hollis offers a lyrical Jungian appreciation of the archetypal imagination. He argues
that without the human mind's ability to form energy-filled images that link us to worlds beyond our rational and
emotional capacities, we would have neither culture nor spirituality. Drawing upon the work of poets and philosophers,
Hollis shows the importance of depth experience, meaning, and connection to an "other" world. The author
draws upon the work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, particularly his Duino Elegies, to elucidate the archetypal
imagination in literary forms. To underscore the importance of incarnating depth experience, he also examines a
series of paintings by Nancy Witt. With the power of the archetypal imagination available to all of us, we are
invited to summon courage to take on the world anew and to risk a radical re-imagining of the larger possibilities
of the world and of the self.
