The Soul Does Not Specialize: Revaluing the Humanities and the Polyvalent Imagination

An education in the Humanities is under attack, defunded and depreciated in academic institutions ranging from primary school through doctoral degree programs both in the United States and abroad. The emphasis is on standardization and specialization, when in contrast, as the title of the volume suggests, the imagination does not standardize, and the soul does not specialize. This collection brings together essays by administration, faculty, and staff from Pacifica Graduate Institute, a small educational institution located on the coast of Central California which emphasizes the wisdom traditions in the depth psychology, mythology, and the humanities. Each essay is a personal manifesto, an impassioned argument for the importance of an education in the humanities which stimulates the mind, nourishes the soul, and gives wings to the imagination. Authors include Cynthia Anne Hale, Ginette Paris, Susan Rowland, Michael Sipiora, Robert Romanyshyn, Dara Marks, Kathryn LaFevers Evans, Paul Zolbrod, Gwyn Wood, Barbara Mossberg, Nancy Galindo, Safron Rossi, Jennifer Leigh Selig, Dennis Patrick Slattery, and Stephen A. Aizenstat.