Decades ago, pioneering Jungian analyst and author Hillman (Kinds of
Power) challenged the assumptions of Western psychology by applying the
ancient concept of "soul" to the modern psyche. Rendered in simpler
terms by his protege, bestselling author Thomas Moore, Hillman's work on
soul has fed the public imagination with the nourishing idea that we are
vastly deeper and more permeable to the influences around us than we may
think. Here, Hillman discusses character and calling, introducing an
"acorn theory" that claims that "each life is formed by its unique
image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a
destiny." Borrowing the language of Plato's Myth of Ur, Hillman suggests
that this imaginary sense of our lives or callings drives each of us
like a personal daimon or force. Drawing on extraordinary lives from
Judy Garland to Coco Chanel to Hitler, he describes the movements of the
daimon, showing how it can use everything in our environment, from lucky
accidents to bad movies, to allow the acorn to "grow down" and express
itself in the real material of our lives. Without succumbing to
oversimplification or wishful thinking, Hillman challenges the reductive
"parental fallacy" - the contention that our early experience with our
parents determines our selves and our futures. The daimon, he says,
pulls us up out of mere conditioning to have a fate - that character and
calling are the result of "the particularity you feel to be you". In
this brilliant, absorbing work, Hillman dares us to believe that we are
each meant to be here; that we are needed by the world around us.
