James Hillman & Archetypal Psychology
James Hillman was a prominent post-Jungian thinker and writer who founded the depth psychological approach known as Archetypal Psychology. He built on Jung's understanding of the archetypal background of the psyche and took the mythic imagination to be the primary means by which we may access this background. This made him, in many respects, the world's most mythological psychologist.
This curriculum begins with the main ideas behind Hillman's approach and continues through engagement with his early work, the major concepts of Archetypal Psychology, the critique of mainstream psychological thinking, and the extension of "soul-making" to how we perceive the world at large.
Applying the understandings gained through these explorations, the curriculum moves on to engage the extended body of Hillman's work, much of which is now republished as the Uniform Edition of his writings. Discussion of a selection of his best-selling, popular books will also be featured.
This first-of-its-kind two-year curriculum constitutes a comprehensive survey of Dr. Hillman’s work equal to an MA in Archetypal Psychology.
For the time being, courses will be offered sporadically but in time the entire curriculum will become available in our “on-demand” course library.
Courses
Year One: A Rich Tree
Sources and Influences Dr. Tom Cheetham
Summer 2025
James Hillman's psychology is original and ground-breaking, yet many of his main ideas and key perspectives derive from a select group of depth psychologists and philosophers who preceded him. Hillman has described C. G. Jung and Henry Corbin as the first and second "fathers" of archetypal psychology, and he drew upon a number of Neoplatonic and Renaissance thinkers. This course will explore these influences and the place they occupy in the development of archetypal thought.
Early Writings Dr. Glen Slater
Fall 2025
Hillman published several notable books before his magnum opus, Re-Visioning Psychology, which reveal the foundations of his thinking. There are also a number of pivotal early essays that convey key insights into his approach to the psyche. This course will provide a curated engagement with early monographs, from Insearch to Suicide and the Soul to The Myth of Analysis. It will also attend to the perspectives that emerge from his writings on the archetypal pattern of senex and puer, monotheistic and polytheistic modes of thought, and the contrasting of soul and spirit.
Re-Visioning Psychology Dr. Glen Slater
Spring 2026
The text that served to mark the peeling away of archetypal psychology from classical Jungian psychology and has continued to serve as a touchstone for followers of Hillman's work ever since is Re-Visioning Psychology. Based on his 1972 Terry Lectures at Yale University, this text both furthered the project of a "soul-centered" psychology and introduced one of Hillman's main goals, which was to move the approach to the psyche beyond the psychotherapy room. A deep dive into this pivotal text is the aim of this course.
The Soul’s Code: Calling & Its Necessary Angels Dr. Sharon Blackie
Fall 2025
In his bestselling book The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling, archetypal psychologist James Hillman declared: ‘Each person enters the world called.’ Each of us, in other words, has a ‘calling’: we came into the world – to this particular place, at this particular time – for a reason.
Hillman’s notion of calling wasn’t original: it can be traced at least as far back as Plato, who expressed the idea in his ‘Myth of Er’. He suggested that before each of us is born, our soul selects a purpose for us to fulfill during our time on Earth. Hillman took up these ancient ideas, similarly suggesting that before we are born, the soul selects the pattern that it wants to live out. And so we bring into this world, and carry inside us, an innate vision – a kind of concealed invisible potential – which we are intended to express during the course of our lives. Although Hillman used many terms for this vision, his preferred way of imagining it was to think of it as an acorn. The acorn, like any seed, carries within it the image of, and the potential to become, the oak tree that it might eventually be – given the circumstances that would allow it to flourish.
The Emerging Field of Archetypal Psychology Dr. Tom Cheetham
Summer 2026
According to Hillman's own account, archetypal psychology developed as a collaborative effort with a number of close colleagues. From its origins in conversations with Rafael Lopez-Pedraza and Patricia Berry, to the incorporation of ideas of Ed Casey and David L. Miller, to the engaging writings of Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig, Nor Hall, and Ginette Paris, archetypal psychology was conceived by Hillman as an interdisciplinary movement that sort to bridge depth psychology, the arts, and the humanities. This course will provide a “highlights reel” focused on this gathering of minds.
Courses
Year Two: Flowering Thoughts
Seeing Through: The Archetypal Basis of Mind Dr. Glen Slater
Fall 2026
This first course of the second year will work to consolidate an understanding of what archetypal psychology mainly does, which is to take lived experiences and significant events and demonstrate the way they revert to archetypal patterns. More than anything else, it is this movement of the mind that generates a sense of soul and allows us to better endure the problems and sufferings of existence. The main texts will be Hillman's best-selling work, The Soul's Code, and Uniform Edition Vol. 7, Inhuman Relations.
Anima Mundi Dr. Tom Cheetham
2027
Depth psychology attempts to discover and build bridges between the deeper instinctive and animal ground of being, on the one hand, and the inspired heights of the spiritual mind on the other. For Hillman, soul and soul-making were always matters of what came "between" these reaches. This final course will return to this basic notion with a revitalized vision, drawing on Hillman's writings on both elements and psyche in Alchemical Psychology (Uniform Edition Vol. 5) and on relating to our fellow earthly creatures in Animal Presences (Uniform Edition Vol. 9).
The Animal-Mind Dr. Glen Slater
2027
Depth psychology attempts to discover and build bridges between the deeper instinctive and animal ground of being, on the one hand, and the inspired heights of the spiritual mind on the other. For Hillman, soul and soul-making were always matters of what came "between" these reaches. This final course will return to this basic notion with a revitalized vision, drawing on Hillman's writings on both elements and psyche in Alchemical Psychology (Uniform Edition Vol. 5) and on relating to our fellow earthly creatures in Animal Presences (Uniform Edition Vol. 9).
Psychology and Mythology Dr. Glen Slater
Winter 2027
James Hillman was the world's most mythological psychologist. Following Jung's vision of the psyche as shaped by the archetypes, and holding to the view that these universal and timeless patterns are most directly represented in the form of myths, particularly via accounts of personified gods, archetypal psychology turns to mythology to find the "root metaphors" (Hillman) of a soul-centered perspective. In this course we will thus engage with Uniform Edition Vol. 6.1, Mythic Figures as well as with his reflections on Ares and Aphrodite in A Terrible Love of War.
Faculty
Dr. Glen Slater
Glen Slater, Ph.D. has been a long-time core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute, most recently chairing the Jungian and Archetypal Psychology program. He is the author of Jung us Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age (2024), editor of the third volume of James Hillman's Uniform Edition, senex and puer, co-editor of the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience, and has written a number of articles and book chapters for Jungian publications. His research and writing interests concern Jung and film, the psychology of religion, and depth psychology and technology.He has been teaching the works of James Hillman for decades and is the designer of this two-year curriculum.
Dr. Sharon Blackie
Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author, and a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore. Her highly acclaimed books, lectures and teaching programs are focused on reimagining women's stories, and on the relevance of myth and fairy tales to the personal, cultural and environmental issues we face today. Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, awarded 'in recognition of the importance of lifetime achievement and contribution to Jungian ideas in the world' She has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. Dedicated to the living reality of the imaginal, she has internalized the theories of James Hillman and Henry Corbin, incorporating these into her extensive writings. sharonblackie.net
Dr. Tom Cheetham
Tom Cheetham, PhD, is a biologist, philosopher, poet and artist. He has written five books on the imagination in psychology, religion, science and the arts, and one book of poems. He taught natural science and the humanities at the college level for 20 years. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy and teaches and lectures both online and in person. He also teaches courses through his Substack.