This book offers nothing but a nice idea that could have been expressed in a single paragraph. i.e the 'acorn' theory. What Hillman offers in support of this idea is vague anecdote gleaned from the biographies of the famous. It is simply meaningless.I am not saying that he should submit reams of data and research, for the 'soul' (whatever he means by that - he does not say) is not subject to logic, yet there is a feeling one gets, a 'knowing', that something is correct (for example when Alan Watts talks about consciousness - it cannot be proved, but it 'makes sense'), that is completely absent in Hillman's reasoning. It is true, because he says it is that way, and you are left thinking: why? Unfortunately, Hillman rambles on, selecting incidents from various people's lives to explain his ideas. Utterly unconvincing, and worse still, boring.