Modern Myths of Quest (Audio: Lecture II.6.1)

Description

Myths do a number of things for us – from social and cultural to psychological and spiritual. Joseph Campbell offers a modern perspective on the Illumination of myths. After delving into the perspectives of Jung and Freud, Joe ties these ideas to the modern works of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, showing how the human psyche gives shape to the Hero’s Journey as illustrated in these novelists’ masterworks.

“I take the little myth of Santa Claus as an extremely eloquent example. The child must think of Santa Claus in a certain way. It’s daddy however. And one fine day that child has to become Santa Claus and put on the whiskers and be daddy with the sentiments and the parental spirit of sympathy and playful loving accord that that image represents. And it’s a bit this way my dear friends with the rather crude images of God and so forth that are presented to our children.”