Dr. James Hollis

When I came back from my training in Zurich in the 70s,

I would say my practice was 90% women and 10% men.

Today it's the reverse, 90% men.

I don't put out a shingle and say I see men or women.

I see both.

But I think, again, the change is in men now.

They recognize change.

they're lost in some way.

The old masculine definitions are no longer applicable.

A lot of this happened with the Industrial Revolution, where fathers and sons worked together in the same trade.

If you were a tanner, you tanned.

If you were a carpenter, you built houses.

If you were a shepherd, you worked with the sheep and so forth.

and you sort of learn who you are from your rubbing shoulders with the father.

Well, today, men go away to the factory or go away to the office, and sons are at home with their mothers, you know, and their female school teachers and so forth.

And so there's, again, this deep hunger for the initiatory father, the supportive father.

In traditional cultures where there were rites of passage, they recognized the importance of—

separating the boy at puberty in a simpler culture, yes, but at puberty, it wasn't initiated by the personal father or relatives.

It was by the elders in the tribe, often wearing masks or painted faces because they were archetypal forces.

They were not the neighbor down the street.