Psychoanalytic Approaches To Myth

by Merkur,Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780824059361
• ISBN10: 0824059360
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The book surveys and evaluates the methods that Freud and the various psychoanalytic schools have employed in their studies of myths. In addition to providing a historical survey, the author argues that modern views of myth as something to be deplored because it is inconsistent with history and science depends on a misunderstanding of the nature of myth. Myth is not a product of unconscious irrationality but is instead a sustained use of metaphor. It expresses ideas in concrete imagery of unconscious inspiration, but the ideas can be rational and profound, as is also the case with poetry and scientific models. As such, there is no validity in condescending to myth-telling cultures, as though their use of myth made them less rational or realistic than Western culture.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Mythology into Metapsychology	p. 1
Myth as Unconscious Manifestation	p. 13
Myth and the Basic Dream	p. 31
Myth as Defense and Adaptation	p. 49
Myth as Metaphor	p. 85
Therapeutic Insights in Myth	p. 123
Epilogue	p. 137
References	p. 141
Index	p. 157
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.