Great read and excellent critique of Hillman's work:"James Hillman: Postmodern Romantic Reductionist, & Trickster" by Depth Psychology Alliance boardmember Michael Bogar.
EXCERPT:
With Hillman there are no literal ideas or solid facts. As a methodological reductionist he shrinks all literalisms to just another part of the psychic mystery and demotes facts to nothing but coagulated ideas perpetrated by the misinformed ego. All ego-generated facts are false Gods--idols which simply serve to remind us that everything is fluid and ever shifting.
Let me state clearly that I generally agree with Hillman's critique of western literalism and absolutism, however, he goes too far. While his perspective is a welcome corrective to the many reductionist philosophical, religious and psychological systems smugly asserting unassailable ideologies, he tends to reduce everything too simply to "only" mystery and Romantic emotionalism. Without apology Hillman strives to deflate, deconstruct and dethrone the heroic human ego which he feels has usurped the archetypal dynamism of the Gods. Yet by being so one-sided in his campaign to move away from any form of literalism, morality and facts, he seems at times to literalize deliteralization, to absolutize relativity and to construct a deconstructionist "non-system" of Psychologizing, getting himself into a paradoxical pickle... (Click here to read more)
Replies