A Terrible Love of War [Paperback]

James Hillman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2005

War is a timeless force in the human imagination—and, indeed, in daily life. Engaged in the activity of destruction, its soldiers and its victims discover a paradoxical yet profound sense of existing, of being human. In A Terrible Love of War, James Hillman, one of today’s most respected psychologists, undertakes a groundbreaking examination of the essence of war, its psychological origins and inhuman behaviors. Utilizing reports from many fronts and times, letters from combatants, analyses by military authorities, classic myths, and writings from great thinkers, including Twain, Tolstoy, Kant, Arendt, Foucault, and Levinas, Hillman’s broad sweep and detailed research bring a fundamentally new understanding to humanity’s simultaneous attraction and aversion to war. This is a compelling, necessary book in a violent world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why do we love war? asks Jungian psychoanalyst Hillman, author of the bestselling The Soul's Code. One might ask in reply, Do we, in fact, love war? Hillman answers unequivocally in the affirmative, skewering modern pretension to prefer the Prince of Peace to the god of war. Mars is the central character in Hillman's exploration of war as an archetypal impulse. "The whole bloody business," he writes, "reveals a god, therewith placing war among the authentic phenomena of religion. And that is why it is so terrible, so loved, and so hard to understand." His portrayal of war as an implacable force, a primary element of the human condition, is unsettling, as is his description of war as a "beautiful horror"â€"but he cites enough memoirs and letters written by those in the heat of battle to convince that it can have a kind of beauty for combatants. Hillman also effectively evokes the transcendent, Mars-like fury that overtakes soldiers in battle ("I felt like a god... I was untouchable," writes one). Throughout, Hillman offers other disturbing insights: readers may feel a shock of recognition when he compares our addiction to viewing war (whether real or cinematic) to the viewing of pornography, noting that we are all voyeurs. But Hillman's mesmerizing prose loses its impact when he launches a sneering attack on Christianity (and the U.S., where "we are all Christians") for being a warrior religion. And perhaps only Jungians will understand his baffling assertion that aesthetic passion (or, in archetypal terms, devotion to Venus) can slow our ceaseless rush to war.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Important reading for our time, as we try to make sense of our terrors." —San Francisco Chronicle



"[Hillman’s] portrayal of war as an implacable force, a primary element of the human condition, is unsettling." —Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143034928
• ISBN-13: 978-0143034926
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A victorious battle of words, April 26, 2004

By 

Peter FYFE (Erskineville, Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Terrible Love of War (Hardcover)

In "A Terrible Love of War", Hillman examines war in a manner analogous to a psychologist working to understand the pathological behaviour of a person in depth therapy. This approach takes us on a engaging and extremely challenging journey into the archetype of war. On the way we meet famous men of battle, we rediscover the Greek gods Ares and Aphrodite (Mars and Venus), we catch a transferential glimpse at Hillman the man in some autobiographical "confessions", and finally come face to face with the war monger within the sacrificial lamb of God. It's confronting because Hillman makes no attempt to "explain" war, but leads us instead to understand it and the dark role it plays in our psyches, individually and collectively. It's a book that will reward careful and considered reading. I'm sure you will revel in his rhetoric, see the myth in his madness, and most of all, admire Hillman's unique approach to this most challenging subject, as I have.

61 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James Hillman goes to war...., June 7, 2004

By 

Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Terrible Love of War (Hardcover)

Archetypal psychology has lacked an exploration of war and its deeper dimensions. This clearly written book not only fills the breach, it invites the reader to look into the heart of war: into the destruction, the religious fascination, and even the love that permeate warfare. Topics under discussion include the media role in aggression; accounts spoken and written by soldiers under fire; the mythic structures behind the American fascination with guns; and what psychology and philosophy have had to say about one of the oldest human pastimes--all in sparkling prose and flavored with anecdotes and examples.

To Christian readers I would recommend considering Hillman's view that Christianity has been martial from the start as a challenge to examine the relationship between the Christian emphasis on love and innocence and its long institutional history of intolerance and brutality. Is warfare endemic to Christianity? Are Christians who reject warfare exceptions to an almost universal aggressiveness? Must Christianity be a religion of missionaries who think they know better than the peoples they seek to convert? These are some of the questions raised by Hillman's study.

Hillman also brings new emphasis to a heavily underrated factor in American aggression: hypocrisy. How is it that we select as leaders (and do adults really need leaders to begin with? Indigenous cultures got on fine with wise elders and mentors) the most insincere and immature among us? Why is it (as Aaron Kipnis puts it) an old boy's club instead of a gathering of wise old men? What does it do to us, these deceptive speeches and these Orwellian justifications (war for peace; "democracy" from the top down; "pre-emptions" that precede nothing but endless cycles of violence)? And from the therapist's point of view: how does living in a nation addicted to unending warfare and cheap, finger-pointing patriotism impact the work we do with our clients?

Hillman's archetypalizing of warfare by bringing it home to the altar of Mars is an elegant move, but for me it always raises the concern: are we eternalizing something that ought to be analyzed as a cultural institution? In a book I'm preparing for publication (The Tears of Llorona; look for it here at Amazon.com around late July or early August 2004) I cite recent research by archeologist R. Brian Ferguson that the evidence for organized warfare only goes back as far as organized civilization. Hillman is correct to dwell on the archetypal aspects--a "ta'wil" move of bringing something back to its ultimate foundations--and while he never makes this a "war is inevitable" justification for armed aggression, I'm wondering if the social-economic-cultural aspect, which he's clearly aware of, needs more mention.

In a recent discussion at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Hillman told me about how it was to visit the Civil War battlefields he mentions in his book. I was moved to see how deeply he felt about what for him is not a merely academic or intellectual interest. "The blood of our brothers cries out from the land," he said, and although he agreed with my phrasing it as "the return of the historically repressed," he did the subject much dearer justice by cohering so closely to the experience as it struck him.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hillman finally delivers ..., June 2, 2006

By 

Harris F. Dodd (San Antonio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Terrible Love of War (Paperback)

Reads like drama. Just the time it takes to turn the page produced an anxiety reaction as I was so eager to keep reading.

A extremely well written cogent main thread is inter-populated with short "just in the right spot" and "just the right length" diversions. I especially enjoyed the diverson about Japan(1543-1879)and guns. A very nice presentation model.

Hillman presents war as an archetypal suprahuman truth he calls Mars or Ares. The book really gives no hope for the eradication of war as Hillman states towards the end:

"But war itself shall remain until the gods themselves go away."

As a vet, I also recommend this book for any veterans who otherwise might not be interested in psychology and mythology or give a hoot about archetypes.

uniquely fascinating!