Back in the 1990s I stumbled across a book that changed the way I think about character—literary and real-life characters. The book was a little something called We’ve Had a 100 Years of Psychotherapy—And the World’s Getting Worse. It’s a series of conversations between a journalist, Michael Ventura, and the great Jungian psychologist, James Hillman.
One portion of their conversation blew my mind. It has to do with how we become the people we are. In the western view, the present is always based on our childhoods.
Hillman says that this is our peculiar American myth. What if you read you life backward instead?
When an acorn falls from a tree, it’s coded to become a mighty oak. Great treeness is its destiny. The tiny puppy I picked out of a litter in South Carolina a year ago was destined to become a ferocious Doberman. Regal dogdom was embedded in his soul.
Why don’t humans think the same way about themselves?