We approach people the same way we approach our cars. We take the poor kid to a doctor and ask, What’s wrong with him, how much will it cost, and when can I pick him up? – James Hillman
Remember that in the early days of the feminist movement, they refused to have a leader; different women would just stand up and speak. The early feminists were very careful to not put what was spontaneously arising back in the old bottle. – James Hillman
Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don’t want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure. – James Hillman
The culture is going into a psychological depression. We are concerned about our place in the world, about being competitive: Will my children have as much as I have? Will I ever own my own home? How can I pay for a new car? Are immigrants taking away my white world? – James Hillman
We need to have an educational system that’s able to embrace all sorts of minds, and where a student doesn’t have to fit into a certain mold of learning. – James Hillman
We can’t change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently. – James Hillman
The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-establishing of these illusions or delusions requires a big effort to keep them from being seen through. But a very old idea is at work behind our current state of affairs: enantiodromia, or the Greek notion of things turning into their opposite. – James Hillman
I don’t think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person. – James Hillman
Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path… this is what I must do, this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am. – James Hillman
You don’t attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It’s the same thing with psychotherapy. – James Hillman
In the history of the treatment of depression, there was the dunking stool, purging of the bowels of black bile, hoses, attempts to shock the patient. All of these represent hatred or aggression towards what depression represents in the patient. – James Hillman
Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. If a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it’s also in the system, the society. – James Hillman
Just stop for a minute and you’ll realize you’re happy just being. I think it’s the pursuit that screws up happiness. If we drop the pursuit, it’s right here. – James Hillman
My suggestion is that there’s no way out of the human condition. Sex, death, marriage, children, parents, illness. There’s no way out. They’re a misery, all of them. – James Hillman
When they talk about family values, it’s in a repressive way, as if our American tradition were only the Puritan tradition or the 19th century oppressive tradition. The Christian tradition. – James Hillman
I’m the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I’m a victim again. A result. – James Hillman
Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, makes you damn miserable. – James Hillman
It’s important to ask yourself, How am I useful to others? What do people want from me? That may very well reveal what you are here for. – James Hillman
The moment the angel enters a life it enters an environment. We are ecological from day one. – James Hillman
