Senex-Puer Polarity

The senex-puer polarity is the archetypal polar structure on which Hillman‘s post-Jungian treatment of fathering, age, youth, form, and inspiration rests. The term designates the same structure as [[puer-senex|puer-senex]] — the relation is commutative — and the two entries exist because the tradition’s texts name it in both orders.

What the polarity names is the thesis: the puer — the eternal youth — and the senex — the old man — are not two separable figures but two poles of a single archetypal configuration. Neither is complete without the other; neither, when held in living relation to the other, needs to operate pathologically. The developmental task is not to move from puer to senex across the arc of the life but to realize both poles together: youthful fire that does not fly off the ground, aged gravity that does not congeal into rigidity. The essays collected in [[hillman-senex-and-puer|Senex and Puer]] are the principal source; the thesis is one of the most durable contributions of the Dallas-archetypal school. See puer-senex and opposites.

Relationships

• puer-senex
• senex
• puer-aeternus