Pathways to Bliss Mythology and Personal Transformation

by Campbell, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9781577314714
• ISBN10: 1577314719
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-26
• Publisher: New World Library

Summary

Joseph Campbell famously defined myth as “other people's religion.” But he also said that one of the basic functions of myth is to help each individual through the journey of life, providing a sort of travel guide or map to reach fulfillment — or, as he called it, bliss. For Campbell, many of the world's most powerful myths support the individual's heroic path toward bliss.

In Pathways to Bliss, Campbell examines this personal, psychological side of myth. Like his classic best-selling books Myths to Live By and The Power of Myth, Pathways to Bliss draws from Campbell's popular lectures and dialogues, which highlight his remarkable storytelling and ability to apply the larger themes of world mythology to personal growth and the quest for transformation. Here he anchors mythology's symbolic wisdom to the individual, applying the most poetic mythical metaphors to the challenges of our daily lives.

Campbell dwells on life's important questions. Combining cross-cultural stories with the teachings of modern psychology, he examines the ways in which our myths shape and enrich our lives and shows how myth can help each of us truly identify and follow our bliss.

Author Biography

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology

Table of Contents

About the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell	p. ix
Editor's Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Man and Myth
The Necessity of Rites	p. 3
The Functions of Mythology	p. 3
Myth and the Development of the Individual	p. 10
Myths for the Future	p. 18
Myth through Time	p. 21
The Surface and Substance of Myth	p. 21
The Birth of Myth: Primitive and Early Societies	p. 26
The Birth of East and West: The High Cultures	p. 36
Living Myth
Society and Symbol	p. 47
The Mechanism of Myths: How Symbols Work	p. 47
Society, Myth, and Personal Development	p. 49
The Ego: East and West	p. 53
Myth and the Self	p. 63
Jung and the Polarities of Personality	p. 63
The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious	p. 68
Personal Myth	p. 85
Jung: What Myth Do I Live By?	p. 85
The Functions of Mythology in Tradition and Today	p. 104
The Hero's Journey
The Self as Hero	p. 111
Dialogues
Dialogues	p. 137
Notes	p. 161
A Joseph Campbell Bibliography	p. 167
Index	p. 171
About the Author	p. 185
About the Joseph Campbell Foundation	p. 193
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.