Beauty

Of all psychology's sins, the most mortal is its neglect of beauty. There is, after all, something quite beautiful about a life. But you would not think so from reading psychology books. Again, psychology fails what it studies. Neither social psychology, experimental psychology, nor therapeutic psychology find a place for the aesthetic appreciation of a life story. Their tasks are investigation and explanation, and should anaesthetic phenomenon pop up in any of their material it will be accounted for by a psychology that is without aesthetic sensitivy to begin with.

That longing in the human heart for beauty must be recognized by the field that claims the human heart to be its province. Psychology must find it s way back to beauty, if only to keep itself alive.

The Soul's Code

In Search of Character and Calling

James Hillman