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Dr James Hillman, on his own account (p. 288), has performed a kind of “therapy” for himself and his readers. He confronts us with the “how” and “why” of emotion in a peculiarly rich and detailed way—“a process of enlightenment which can result in an appreciation of emotion, which is precisely what is required for its development” (p. 288). It is an invitation to test the value of the book by the criterion of whether or not the reader finds himself more eager to take the first step towards greater consciousness of the emotional life—a “gift of both flesh and spirit”, not altogether understood, a “risk” because “to be known it must be lived” (p. 289).
Hillman's book contains his dissertation for his Ph.D. degree at Zürich in 1958. Hence it is a source book of research on emotion, mainly in this century. It is, however, his method of organizing his material that is intriguing and unusual. After a short demonstration of the relative agreement that has been reached about the concept of emotion, he points out the chaos that exists over its theory, i.e. the “how” and the “why” of emotion. Accordingly he braves “the pandemonium of theory” (p. 31) and breaks it up into eighteen clusters of theories around specific themes which are discussed in great detail. The result is formidable and defies description in a short review.
Hillman's detailed classification of, and distinction between, theories (“Differentiation”) is followed by Part III of his book entitled “Integration”. In this section he discusses and modifies a classical model with which to grasp the material, i.e. the archetype of the fourfold root as expressed by Aristotle's Four Causes. His final result can be quoted:
“Emotion is ‘symbol’, ‘energy’, ‘psyche’ and ‘transformation’. Each emotion has: its own pattern of behaviour and quality of experience which is always a total attitude of the whole psyche (causa formalis); its own distribution and intensity of energy in the field of the human body situation (causa materia