The Power of Myth: The Collective Dream
Ruben Nagesparan Chandrakumar, BS
The religious myths across cultures encapsulate the most fundamental aspects of reality. To perceive and treat them as fairytales that we have outgrown is to straw-man the most vital constituents of human life. The religious myths are at the core of our culture- they are that which culture arises from; the myths are the collective dream- they are what the dream is to the psyche. Myths and the culture that surface from them form our perception, our core belief structure, our understanding of reality, and our understanding of how to act within reality. They shape and guide our morality.
The reason is that we see ourselves as narrative creatures. We see ourselves as characters in the complex story of life. So, without any narrative framework through which to view ourselves, we are unable to perceive reality and have no idea how to act. The stories we believe provide the most fundamental guide on how to behave. The most fundamental myth for humans, as described by various mythologies worldwide, is the hero myth. This was the revelation that Carl Jung had which led to his split from Sigmund Freud.
The myth that Sigmund Freud viewed as primary was the Oedipal myth- the tragedy myth. Despite viewing religion as a threat to rationality, Freud was still dependent on a narrative myth to guide his understanding of psychology and to develop a psychoanalytic framework for perceiving and treating patients. Marx was similar in his approach to mythology; he viewed religion as ‘the opium of the masses,’ yet was still dependent on a narrative structure to explain history and how humans should perceive and behave in the world. Marx’s central myth was class-based warfare. The morality, perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors of those who truly believed in Marx’s views were that the only righteous way to live was through engaging in a bloody revolution against the oppressing class.
These examples demonstrate that there is no escape to the centrality of myths. Even those who attempt to wish away the narrative substructure of their psyche end up forming myths of their own. By understanding the commonalities and differences between the various myths that guide peoples, the blueprint toward a base-level universal morality can be articulated and pursued.