Senex and Puer

The old man and the child. Spirit and soul. Vertical and horizontal. Peter Pan and Centaur Chiron. Dumbledore and Harry Potter. Mozart and Salieri. This eternal pair, whose antagonism permeates our culture from top to bottom, has rarely been fully understood psychologically. Sometimes they act as opponents, sometimes as allies, doing a common task. For the main secret of Senex and Puer is that there is no one without the other. James Hillman, the founding father of archetypal psychology, sees the main nerve of modern culture and the psychology of the individual in this eternal antagonism.