James Hillman (1926–2011) was an American psychologist and the founder of archetypal psychology. Educated in Europe, he studied under C.G. Jung and later directed studies at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Hillman established archetypal psychology as a distinct approach, diverging from Jung's focus on the Self to emphasize the psyche or soul and the fundamental patterns animating life. His work critiqued modern psychologies for being reductive and materialistic, advocating instead for a return to the soul's place in understanding human experience through imagination, myth, and metaphor.

His influential book, "Re-visioning Psychology" (1975), explored these ideas and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Hillman also co-founded the Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture and saw his book "The Soul's Code" become a bestseller. He viewed dreams not as compensatory or predictive, but as indicators of our current state, advocating for a phenomenological approach to dream analysis that focuses on staying with the dream image itself. Hillman's legacy lies in his profound reorientation of psychology towards the soul and the richness of psychic life.

Archetypal psychology, as developed by James Hillman, is characterized as a polytheistic approach that recognizes the multitude of fantasies and myths shaping psychological life. Within this framework, the ego is considered just one among many psychological fantasies. Hillman utilized figures from mythology—gods, goddesses, and demigods—as "sounding boards" for understanding contemporary life, emphasizing their resonance rather than their use as rigid standards. While rooted in Jungian tradition, archetypal psychology represents a significant departure by relativizing the ego and focusing on the psyche, or soul, and the fundamental patterns known as "archai." This perspective seeks to uncover the "fundamental fantasies that animate all life."

Hillman was a vocal critic of 20th-century psychologies that adopted a natural scientific model, deeming them reductive, materialistic, and lacking in soul. His work aimed to re-establish the significance of the soul within psychology, locating its expression in imagination, fantasy, myth, and metaphor. He also found the soul revealed in psychopathology, interpreting symptoms as the "speech of the suffering soul." Hillman's concept of "soul making" involves attending to and re-working psychic images until they are clear, a process he believed to be therapeutic. He equated the psyche with the soul, advocating for a psychology grounded in art and culture, aiming to draw soul into the world through creative acts.

In archetypal psychology, dreams are considered vital for understanding the soul and the process of soul making. However, Hillman diverged from traditional interpretations, including Jung's, by asserting that dreams reveal "where we are, not what to do." He rejected methods that sought compensatory meanings or broke dreams down into constituent parts. Instead, Hillman championed a phenomenological approach, famously advising to "Stick with the image." This method involves closely describing and attending to the dream image as it appears, rather than immediately interpreting or transforming it into something else. The goal is to keep the image alive and allow for deeper understanding of the psyche by exploring its presented form.