This volume, for the first time, collects James Hillman's running
encounters with a primary psychological pattern, an archetype that
arises alongside the very attempt to fashion psychological perspective.
Senex and puer are Latin terms for "old man" and "youth," and personify
the poles of tradition, stasis, structure, and authority on one side,
and immediacy, wandering, invention and idealism on the other. The senex
consolidates, grounds and disciplines; the puer flashes with insight and
thrives on fantasy and creativity. These diverging, conflicting
tendencies are ultimately interdependent, forming two faces of the one
configuration, each face never far from the other. "Old" and "new" maybe
the most direct terms for the pair.