ABSTRACT
Depth psychology is a broad field that includes myriad, sometimes divergent viewpoints. Sigmund Freud’s theories tended more toward a medical model of the conscious–unconscious relationship; Carl Gustav Jung expanded into more eclectic philosophical and spiritual territory; and James Hillman would take an arguably post-modern approach to deconstructing our basic assumptions about what “psychology” means. In depth psychology, imagination would come to play an increasingly central role in understanding and engaging the human psyche as the twentieth century unfolded. Freud concluded from his own observations of hypnosis that something vital in the psyche was buried or held back, and the repressed aspects of the patient were responsible for psychological dysfunction. Freud and Jung had labored to fit their psychologies into the frameworks of natural and medical science, but Hillman rejected and even criticized this as profound misunderstanding of the psyche. Henry Corbin’s imaginal cosmology was a primary inspiration and container for the development an archetypal psychology that honors the imagining heart.
