Saturday, 14 July 2018

The Many Faces of 'Power'


Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its Intelligent Uses

James Hillman

You sometimes expect to find the Machiavellian, the Chomskian, the Actonian or the Foucauldian streak to Hillman when he discusses on the concept of Power!

Indeed he does! There’s quite an amalgamation on some of those concepts, but still, he comes out bigtime with his own interesting views on Power too! That gives the book its aura and its vibes!

Celebrated Jungian therapist James Hillman shows how the artful leader uses each of two dozen kinds of power with finesse and subtlety.

Power, we often forget, has many faces, many different expressions.

"Empowerment," writes best-selling Jungian analyst James Hillman, "comes from understanding the widest spectrum of possibilities for embracing power."

If food means only meat and potatoes, your body suffers from your ignorance.

When your idea of food expands, so does your strength.

So it is with power. "James Hillman," says Robert Bly, "is the most lively and original psychologist we have had in America since William James."

In Kinds of Power, Hillman gives much needed substance to the subject by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the mind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength.

Hillman's "anatomy" of power explores two dozen expressions of power every artful leader must understand and use, including: the language of power, control, influence, resistance, leadership, prestige, authority, exhibitionism, charisma, ambition, reputation, fearsomeness, tyranny, purism, subtle power, growth, and efficiency.

Power in business, politics and the world of work, to most people, implies competition, domination, control and reward.

Rejecting this conventional notion of power as limited and stultifying, Hillman reconceptualizes power in terms of sustaining continuity, conserving, teaching, caring, bringing out the innate potential in each person or task.

Growth, to corporations, means bottom-line results, bigger equals better. But to Hillman, growth is a process of shedding worn-out identities, cleaning up messes, pondering the implications of one's actions for the wider world and for future generations.

The core of this highly reflective inquiry consists of short explorations: mythological, philosophical, etymological, psychological, etc., of concepts like influence, tyranny, ambition, office and decision.

Hillman points out that there are many different kinds of power and that the execution of power has many styles and nuances.

In the past, power has been used to increase growth and efficiency, but now, Hillman explains, it should be used to accomplish the goals of service and maintenance.

How trueeey!

With delightful inputs from librarything.com

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