The Mythological Unconscious

The unconscious is one of the most radically original discoveries ever made. The implications are vast and revolutionary. What, however, is the unconscious? Some of the greatest psychoanalysts of all time declare emphatically that the unconscious is mythological. Sigmund Freud speaks of "endopsychic myths" and psycho-mythology C.G.Jung refers to "mythopoeic imagination" and the "'myth-forming' structural elements" of the psyche. Wilfred R. Bion asserts that the psyche extends into the "domain of myth". James Hillman contends that "the essence of psyche is myth" and that "psychology is ultimately mythology" Michael Vannoy Adams reaffirms the decisive importance of the mythological unconscious. What distinguishes this book from previous books on mythology and psychology is that Adams provides so many persuasive examples of how myths appear in contemporary dreams and fantasies, and does so with such erudition, wit, and eloquent clarity. Among the many mythological images that Adams discusses are Oedipus, Odysseus, Hercules, the Hydra, Poseidon, Cronos, Medusa, Narcissus, Hermes, Nike, Zeus, Pan, Tezcatlipoca, the lion, the centaur, Pegasus, the bull, the labyrinth,the Minotaur, the griffin and the unicorn. Finally he presents a dream that beautifully exemplifies the "myth of the Hero.