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.

Autorentext

Dan Merkur

Zusammenfassung
This book surveys the history of psychoanalytic treatments of myths variously as symptoms of psychopathology, as cultural defense mechanisms, and as metaphoric expressions of ideas that may include therapeutic insights.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Mythology into Metapsychology; Chapter 2 Myth as Unconscious Manifestation; Chapter 3 Myth and the Basic Dream; Chapter 4 Myth as Defense and Adaptation; Chapter 5 Myth as Metaphor; Chapter 6 Therapeutic Insights in Myth; epilogue Epilogue;