Does psychology use mythology as a method of treatment ?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by river, Feb 10, 2013.

  1. river

    Messages:
    17,307
    Just asking

    Or should we be using mythology as a method of treatment in psychology

    And if not why not


    Comments
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,882
    Well ... er ... um ... I mean, that is to say ....

    Not exactly. But mythology provides certain reference points if we can understand the symbolism.

    If you want an enlightening exercise in head versus wall, I always recommend Brown's Life Against Death. I know, "Read a whole damn book," isn't the best explanation, but I'll have to give it some thought before I can explain in any useful context.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. river

    Messages:
    17,307
    Fair enough

    I'm curious though

    One thing , why Browns book ?
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. river

    Messages:
    17,307
    Sorry Tiassa , brain cramp , sometimes I'm slow

    Ordered the book though

    river
     
  8. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,600
    I used to study a psychologist named James Hillman whose "archetypal psychology" incorporated the symbolism of various gods and mythical beings into his therapy. This goes back thru Jung all the way to Nietzsche, whose dichotomy of the Apollonian and the Dionysian served as a useful criteria for modern trends in music and art. Another offshoot of the Jungian movement involves the affirmation of the divine feminine (triple goddess) and the divine masculine (hero demigod) in oneself and the expression of such in ritual, dreamwork, and creative activity. Here's a brief article on polytheistic mythology used in psychotherapy:


    "polytheistic myth as having psychological value is one theorem of archetypal psychology as defined by James Hillman, and explored in current Jungian mythology literature. Myth itself, according to Joseph Campbell, represents the human search for what is true, significant, and meaningful. He says what we are seeking is “…an experience of being alive…so that our life experiences…will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive”.[1] According to proponents of this theory, polytheistic myths can provide psychological insight.

    Christine Downing recounts the Greek view of the gods as energies that affect everyone. In so being they are referred to "as theos, that is, as immortal, permanent, ineluctable aspects of the world".[2] Disputes among the Greek pantheon were frequent, yet, Downing emphasizes, no god of the Classical era ever denied the existence of another god. And she cautions us as humans that to deny even one of the pantheon diminishes the richness of individuals and of the world.[3]

    For Carl Gustav Jung, the primary function of myth is psychological — to shed light on the workings of the unconscious. The cornerstone of his therapeutic approach is working with a patient’s dreams and fantasies. To be of help, then, it is imperative to have knowledge of the details of the patient’s life as well as knowledge of “…symbols, and therefore of mythology and the history of religions”.[4] Jung implies the diversity of psychic energies inhabiting the unconscious. He also cautions us to know these energies rather than force them into one’s shadow lest one’s “…moods, nervous states, and delusions make it clear in the most painful way that [one] is not the only master in his house…"[5]

    Thomas Moore says of James Hillman’s teaching that he “portrays the psyche as inherently multiple”.[6] In Hillman’s archetypal/polytheistic view, the psyche or soul has many directions and sources of meaning—and this can feel like an ongoing state of conflict—a struggle with one’s daimones. According to Hillman, “polytheistic psychology can give sacred differentiation to our psychic turmoil…”.[7] Furthermore, Hillman states that, "The power of myth, its reality, resides precisely in its power to seize and influence psychic life. The Greeks knew this so well, and so they had no depth psychology and psychopathology such as we have. They had myths. And we have no myths as such -instead, depth psychology and psychopathology. Therefore... psychology shows myths in modern dress and myths show our depth psychology in ancient dress."[8] Hillman qualifies his many references to gods as differing from a literalistic approach saying that for him they are aides memoires, i.e. sounding boards employed "for echoing life today or as bass chords giving resonance to the little melodies of life."[9] Hillman further insists that he does not view the pantheon of gods as a 'master matrix' against which we should measure today and thereby decry modern loss of richness.[9]

    Other proponents of this view are Jean Shinoda Bolen[10] and Ginette Paris."
     
  9. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,600
    "Each life is formed by its unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny. As the force of fate, this image acts as a personal daimon, an accompanying guide who remembers your calling.

    The daimon motivates. It protects. It invents and persists with stubborn fidelity. It resists compromising reasonableness and often forces deviance and oddity upon its keeper, especially when neglected or opposed. It offers comfort and can pull you into its shell, but it cannot abide innocence. It can make the body ill. It is out of step with time, finding all sorts of faults, gaps, and knots in the flow of life - and it prefers them. It has affinities with myth, since it is itself a mythical being and thinks in mythical patterns.

    It has much to do with feelings of uniqueness, of grandeur and with the restlessness of the heart, its impatience, its dissatisfaction, its yearning. It needs its share of beauty. It wants to be seen, witnessed, accorded recognition, particularly by the person who is its caretaker. Metaphoric images are its first unlearned language, which provides the poetic basis of mind, making possible communication between all people and all things by means of metaphors”
    ― James Hillman
     
  10. Asexperia Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,724
    Somehow helps people to fantasize (creativity), but without breaking with reality.
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    As long as we recognize myths as metaphors, there's no harm. Metaphor is a simplified, exaggerated version of truth that (usually) gives us a useful idea that strikes an acceptable balance between the bewildering complexity of reality, from which we often learn nothing, and the inaccuracy inherent in simplification which, if taken to an extreme, can be misleading.

    Jung has been cited in this thread. He regarded myths as a category of archetype. Archetypes are instinctive ideas preprogrammed into the DNA of our synapses by evolution. (Genetics was not a mature science in his day so he did not use these words.) They can be visual images, stories, rituals or simply behaviors.

    Many instincts were obviously selected by survival: an animal that runs away from a larger animal with both eyes in front of its face (a predator) is more likely to live long enough to reproduce than one that does not. Same for an animal that is not comfortable close to the edge of a cliff, or one that feels an urge to feed and protect its young.

    Some of the more bizarre archetypes that comprise the world's religions (the global flood, the human or other animal rising from the dead, etc.) are more difficult to trace back to survivability. Perhaps they somehow triggered survival strategies in a Paleolithic community that faced dangers we can't imagine, but I think it's more likely that they were simply passed down by chance through genetic drift or a genetic bottleneck. In other words, the rise of religion may be nothing but an unfortunate accident.

    Jung and his followers have put tremendous effort into analyzing the archetypes found in our dreams. For example, to dream of flying is to imagine breaking your bond with Mother Earth, and is said to signify a desire to cut the ties with your flesh-and-blood mother.
     
  12. river

    Messages:
    17,307

    Archetypes are also taken by Jung as a pattern of commonality of Humanity

    The collective unconscious
     
  13. wellwisher Banned Banned

    Messages:
    5,160
    Let me explain it this way. We have two hemispheres or two sides of the brain, with each side of the brain processing data, differently. The left brain is more differential and helps us notice differences. The right brain is more spatial and tends to integrate into commonalities. As an example of this contrast, if you traveled to a foreign country the right brain integrates all the faces in a commonalities, such as oriental. The left brain or differential brain sees more in terms of details and allows us to notice specific people in spite of commonality.

    Science is mostly left brained and differential. This training allows us to see nature down to the tiniest details. Religion and mythology are much more right brain and tend to generalize things in integrated concepts. For example, the symbol Mother earth personifies all of life and nature, which is a very broad topic that would take thousands of books and paper; via differential brain.

    Although we have two sides of the brain, we are only conscious of one side at a time, with western education and science tending to train the left or differential brain more than the right brain. This allows us to generate endless details and information, but we don't have enough right brain balance to integrate it so it is collecting quickly.

    Since the right brain is less conscious or unconscious to most. It is therefore the gateway to the unconscious mind. Mythology and other symbolism is a way to access the unconscious side of the brain.

    In terms of Jung, his thesis was the archetypes of the collective unconscious, which are common to all humans. He was dealing with the integrated or right brain via the integrated concepts common to all. He was not about that which makes us unique; ego-centric left brain, but about right brain and how we are similar. The mythology approach is not too useful for differential based therapy; neurosis and personal unconscious. It is more useful after therapy, for those who wish to explore the collective human psyche.

    In terms of human evolution, humans were originally right brained. This can be inferred that the most primitive humans were more instinctive with only a few differentiated inventions; fire and tools. If they had more conscious access to the left brain there would be more differentiation or more detailed perceptions and inventions. This shift in the brain does not occur until the formation of civilization, when the differentiation of invention begins to rapidly expand. Mythology connects us to the oldest side of the brain at the time when consciousness was shifting from right to left brain. By the age of the enlightenment the right became more unconscious. Since integration is harder than differentiation the next step in evolution is a return to the right brain while maintaining left brain access. Define and integrate.
     
  14. Mikebach Registered Member

    Messages:
    11
    It's all much simpler: Did you have something to look forward to today? Fill in the blank (any philosophy will suffice). Religion (which is very archetypal) fills the blank...
     
  15. ccdan Registered Member

    Messages:
    40
    Actually the question is: does psychology use anything other than mythology? Is it based on anything other than myths?

    The essence of psychology and psychiatry came into being in a similar fashion that most myths did. And it continues to "evolve" largely in the very same fashion.
     
  16. pljames Registered Member

    Messages:
    83
    What constitutes happiness? Happiness is a philosophic word and means different things to different people. Next question is, what's happiness, other than nonprescription drug? If the patient believes in God and God makes the happy, what right does the therapist have to disagree because they are atheist or agnostic? Paul/pljames
     
  17. MarkHolland Registered Member

    Messages:
    16
    Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors.[1][2] Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases,[3][4] and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit society.[5][6] In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain cognitive functions and behaviors.
     
  18. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    I don't think this is true at all. As a musician I use my right hemisphere for creativity and beauty, and my left hemisphere for technique. They work together at all times, especially when improvising.

    I knew an attorney who used a drug widely credited with damping left-hemisphere processing so he could be more creative in the courtroom. He won a much higher percentage of his cases in that condition. In addition to attorneys, scientists, engineers and other people who live in their left hemisphere from 9 to 5 often use this same technique for throttling it, and that's when they pick up their paintbrushes or their guitars or their novels in progress. Obviously it only works for people with high IQs, otherwise they'd forget how to operate a microwave oven, or maybe even a toilet, and they'd be sitting in the corner playing find-your-foot.

    Who said that? I suspect that many people in the modern, regimented Western world tend not to pay attention to it, but it's still online.

    I can't find any reference to the phrase "differential based therapy." What is it? I had a Jungian therapist and he was always throwing archetypes at me to explain why I am the way I am and how I could change that a little if I wanted to. Those guys have a whole dictionary of images that show up in our dreams, manifestations of the archetypes. They use those for dream interpretation. For example, if you're flying--i.e., escaping from Mother Earth--it means that you want to get away from your mother.

    No. It appears to have started around 70KYA. This is when archeologists see an explosion of creativity and new technologies. Within a few millennia they made the first successful migration out of Africa.

    It's been postulated that this identifies the invention of the technology of spoken language, since at this point we start seeing evidence of myriad coordinated activities that would have been literally impossible among people who could not communicate orally. Jean Auel paints a beautiful picture of Neanderthals building a rich culture with only sign language (because when she wrote the first book in the Clan of the Cave Bear series it was thought that the Neanderthal brain has no speech center), but she glosses over the fact that it's very hard to make enough hand signs to carry on an intricate conversation when your hands are busy carrying weapons, picking berries, cooking, making clothes, etc.

    Yes, the dawn of civilization correlates with yet another explosion of creativity, but it's only one in a series, each of which was launched by a paradigm-shifting technology: agriculture-->cities-->bronze metallurgy-->iron metallurgy-->conversion of chemical energy to kinetic energy (commonly referred to as the Industrial Revolution)-->and the current paradigm shift which doesn't yet have a standard name: the Electronic Age, the Computer Revolution, the Information Age. Each of these paradigm shifts leveraged the productivity of human labor by several orders of magnitude, allowing more people to spend more time doing knowledge work instead of physical work. So with more thinking going on, naturally there was more creativity and invention.

    The current paradigm shift will leverage the productivity of the human brain. It would be pointless to try to predict how that will work out, except that there will be another explosion of creativity and invention.
     
  19. Write4U Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,069
    IMO, gods are the symbolic and metaphorical representations of fundamental universal laws and constants. In addition, gods are associated with nature and humans in particular. Their stories almost always have fundamental ethical and moral messages.

    In psychology it seems to me that this (moral) conditioning allows for empathy and understanding of the nature of existence. The mirror neural response network is based on these symbolisms. It allows us to impart and share fundamental values.
    Fortunately, this can be done with mythology (of all kinds), unfortunately it can also lead to discrimination.

    The problem starts when we insist that these symbolic and metaphoric representation require physical worship and ritual and are the only and exclusive way to find 'truth". And that is just not true, because either all are true or none are true.
     

Share This Page