Glen Slater writes in his introduction: "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.
Thirteen chapters include the themes of Opportunism, Betrayal, Wounds and Scars, Negativity, Nostalgia, the Soul/Spirit Distinction, Verticality, Ambition, and Transcendence.