The Soul's Code

James Hillman presents an alternative, existential viewpoint that who we become as adults is predetermined before our birth, in the same way that the genetic code of a colossal oak rests within that tiny acorn. Hillman's presentation is a pleasure--his tone is engaging; anecdotes are performed with characteristic inflections that place listeners in the moment. We are there, for example, at the pivotal moment when young Ella Fitzgerald suddenly decides to sing, not dance, for a local competition. (Was this the moment she heard her calling?) This audiobook explains how to reconcile the past and present and how to become the grand oak of one's own personal mythology. R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from July 29, 1996
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. 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. Simultaneous Random AudioBook; author tour.