Imagination Is Reality: Western Nirvana in Jung, Hillman, Barfield, and Cassirer

This small book is the first comprehensive essay to place archetypal psychology within a major tradition of modern thought-the tradition of mythical thinking-and to recognize imagination as the primal force and basic reality of human life. By drawing upon the writings of four twentieth-century thinkers, Roberts Avens clarifies the post-Jungian direction of psychology as it moves toward poetic and polytheistic imagination. He then compares the radical achievements of this direction in resolving the ‘ego-question’ with the methods and ideas of the East: Buddhism, Tantrism, Zen, and Vedanta. Avens’s grasp of understanding, easy familiarity with his subject, and refined insights together make this book an introductory text and an advance into new territory.