The nature of mythology and its persistence in culture throughout thousands of years has long fascinated scholars and thinkers. Joseph Campbell’s book entitled The hero with a thousand faces investigates this issue in detail to reveal how myth as a psychologically informed phenomenon predetermines cultural patterns of humanity. In this paper, the first chapter of the book, “Myth and dream,” will be at the center of the discussion.
The thesis of this part might be projected through the following quote. The author states that myths “are dangerous because they threaten the fabric of the security into which we have built ourselves and our family. But they are fiendishly fascinating too, for they carry keys that open the whole realm of the desired and feared adventure of the discovery of the self” (Campbell, 2004, p. 7). Such a formulation implies that people’s minds intertwine myths and dreams as a mechanism of self-perception, understanding of the self in the context of the whole life cycle, and coping with developmental change.
Myths lead people through the challenges of life and allow for integrating the conscious and subconscious into a single framework. Indeed, prior to presenting the idea in the above-mentioned quote, Campbell (2004) refers to the repetitive occurrence of the terrors and irrationalities from ancient mythology in contemporary people’s dreams. Indeed, the motifs of hatred, vanity, jealousy are intertwined with love, gratitude, and other feelings and motivations to action. In such a manner, these matters are dangerous to people because they unveil the psychological underpinnings of their subconscious in ways that contradict their rational or conscious decision-making and thinking.
The author elaborates on this central idea by referring to the letters written by people about their myth-like dreams reflecting their concerns or subconscious struggles. Campbell (2004) presents an example of a young man’s dream about accidentally killing his father to obtain the full attention of his mother, which has been a recurring theme in mythology. Furthermore, the author refers to a dream of a woman who sees a half-horse-half-man individual in her dream despite any ideas of infidelity experienced consciously. In this regard, the connection between the experiences of early childhood and adulthood is essential for myths and their manifestation in dreams. This observation helps explain the second part of the quote, which states that through the contradictions of the myth-like dreams, people can understand their selves and the subconscious triggers of their emotions and behaviors.