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Views and Reviews

An Introduction to James Hillman's The Force of Character and the Lasting Life

by Charles Knott

In this remarkable book, written toward the end of his own life, Hillman attempts to answer the question of why humans live so long. An eager interest in "old" as an archetypal possibility in all things, as a given with human beings as with all being, is what our society misses, what older people miss particularly and yearn to discover. For we know we must pass our days and nights under the auspices of the implacable God who rules last years and wants sacrifice. The neglect of that God is reflected in the neglect of the aged and in the old age home with its routines in place of rituals, a secular sanctuary with no transcendent vision, no archetypal footing.

Hillman laments the old age homes of our world with their "routines in place of rituals, calling them secular sanctuaries with "no transcendent vision, no archetypal footing." He believes there is an "implacable god who rules last years and wants sacrifice" and intends his book to be itself a ritual celebration dedicated to that god.

We are conditioned to think of human life in evolutionary terms and to see propagating the human race as our primary natural purpose. Yet it is not unusual for us to live 30, 40, or even 50 years beyond our reproductive capabilities. Dismissing the idea that these additional decades of life beyond reproductive viability are due to genes, conservational medicine or societal collusion, Hillman maintains that the "last years confirm and fulfill character." Hillman discusses the many ways in which aging serves life. Where is soul in the aging process?

I find this book to be so remarkable that I would feel truly impoverished if I had to go on aging without it. I have written about The Force of Character in two Reflections columns and feel I've only scratched the surface of the endlessly creative and profound ideas Hillman expresses. Please read my two columns there and the current one in Entertaining Ideas if you would like an introductory perspective before giving this book the full attention it deserves by reading it, perhaps more than once.

James Hillman, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life (New York: Random House, 1999).