Carl Jung Theory Of Myth Essay

Myth is an often misunderstood subject that involves the foundations of any religion today. Due to the connotations of the word now, religious people find the implication of the word “myth” to be the equivalent of “false”. Of course, when applied to their own religion, this is found to be incredibly disrespectful coming from scholars studying the subject. However, nowadays the meaning of myth has been confused with the definition of a fairytale, a fictitious tale created to teach morals by the use of talking animals and supernatural elements. Myth can even be used in replacement of “misconception”, a false idea based on faulty thinking. After examining the different theories of myth by a variety of great anthropologists, we can find that these synonyms are simply not accurate when discussing it's role in religion.

In modern society, the word myth is thought of as replaceable of the word ”fictional”. In general conversation, mentioning something as a myth would imply it is false, or should be regarded as so at the very least. But myth is much more than another way to prove someone wrong, it is such an important subject that all religions and therefore cultures depend on it to tell their origin stories. To

Mircea Eliade, these accounts of sacred history were all true, and myth existed for the purpose of explaining how things came into existence. Eliade called this the “Phenomenological Interpretation of Myth”. He stated that myth was to be taken as completely real, and existed to tell the story of how reality came to be. He called this the phenomenological interpretation because of its use of the philosophy of phenomenology, which states objective consciousness exists in a way that is not material, and that our world is made up of mental concepts. If this is true, then the concept of religion and the myths behind it are just as real as the water in the ocean.

Whether or not myth is historically inaccurate or completely impossible is irrelevant when attempting to understand it. As Bronislaw Malinowski saw it, myth is something that must be taken as truth. In his “Functionalist Theory of Myth”, Malinowski noted that myth was an indispensable aspect of culture around the globe. Myth must be seen as true because of its importance to the existence of its particular religion is very real. As cultures are built from religions, and religions are built upon myths, our very culture depends on myth to function.

The last theory we can use to understand how to approach myth is Carl Jung's “Psychotherapeutic Theory of Myth”.

The idea behind Jung's theory is that myth is born from a collective unconscious of mankind, or a society. We see reappearing imagery, or 'archetypes', because of this collective unconscious and interpret this into stories of myth. Out of the three theories, I most agree with Jung's psychotherapeutic theory. Throughout history we can see different cultures adapt archetypal roles into their myth, while having no contact with another religion that shares similar aspects. I think this is because there is something in us as humans to search for the same thing, no matter our culture or our place of origin. There is something in us that seeks a

savior.

In the end, myth should not be seen as just an old wives tale because of its involvement of supernatural aspects. Malinowski, Eliade, and Jung all share one common conclusion in their theories of Myth: that it should not be regarded as false. Even if it is historically or scientifically inaccurate, it has a large amount of value in the religions that build our society.