City & Soul (Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman) by Hillman James

Author:Hillman, James [Hillman, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychology
Publisher: Spring Publications
Published: 2013-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

An idea of Justice has hardly been important to psychology, which has proceeded as if Justice could be ignored. Yet Justice is the ruling principle of society, perhaps of the natural world as well, formulated as natural law. The Greeks considered Justice (Themis) foundational. She was a great earth goddess, like Gaia whom Zeus, too, had to obey. She lies in the roots of the polis, the city, making structural cohesion possible, giving each its rightful place, allowing it to belong, yet not overstep its bounds. Ostracism, banishment, exclusion for transgressions have long been punishments based on Justice’s cohesive inclusion.

Justice is inherent in society for making society possible and inherently necessary to individual survival in society, so Justice is inherent in the individual person, perhaps in all creatures maintaining their claims to mutually dependent existence. Justice lies so deep, feels so innate – it works like an instinct. Transgressions spring quick to the eye; injustice stinks and its wounds long fester. A sense of Justice comes with the newest soul. The smallest child cries: “that’s not fair!”

Justice makes possible an inherently co-related society of beings where mutual dependency is based not on mutual usefulness and economic exchange, but on the bare fact of participatory existence. If all beings belong, then all are needed and useful, and justice prevails for each and every.

Psychology has come upon justice indirectly. Empowerment, entitlement, victimization – all miss the archetypal dimension that revalues these feelings as ethical and political claims. When Justice is foundational then injustice becomes a primary syndrome, a diagnostic category perhaps, and a primary focus of therapy. The justification of one’s life becomes more significant than its individualized meaning. The pursuit of Justice leads psychology toward moral and political philosophy.

And to aesthetics: le mot juste. Justice insists on the right use of language, the right gesture, rhythm that bespeak the psyche’s basic poetic requirements. Of all the injustices that psychology ought to rectify foremost is getting its words to fit the case, and the case is always the soul. Getting things right – that is where ethics and aesthetics converge, which now leads us to Beauty.

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