Comparative analysis and contrasting perspectives

Myth

For Freud, myth was "nothing but psychology projected to the outer world," (cited by Bierlein p. 257). Freud's theory of myth paralleled his theory of dreams: both myths and dreams were products of the individual unconscious mind and its repressed desires. Jung shared in common with Freud a belief that symbols in dreams were similar to if not the same as those experienced in the personal world of dreams. Both myths and dreams were based on archetypes, according to Carl Jung. Archetypes are universally shared symbols or motifs such as gods or the feats of heroes. Levi-Strauss did not explain myths in terms of their symbolic value like Freud or Jung. Rather, Levi-Strauss showed that myths pointed to underlying structures in human biology as well as underlying structures of human society. The content of myths -- their stories and imagery -- is only meaningful insofar as it reveals information about social and physical structures. To a degree, Levi-Strauss underscored the psychological and sociological function of myths even though his theory of myths was more materialistic than either Freud or Jung. All three theorists explained myths in terms of human psychological needs but each presented the phenomenon of myths in different ways.

Each of the three theorists acknowledges a personal psychological component of myth. Myth fulfills a universal human need and that explains their similarities across cultures. For Freud, psychic processes created myth as human beings externalized the stories in personal dreams. Those dreams were products of the unconscious mind and signified repressed sexual desires and wish fulfillment. Like Freud, Jung believed myth represented the "natural and indispensable immediate stage between unconscious and conscious cognition," (cited by Bierlein, p. 258). Thus both Freud and Jung presented myth as serving a psychological function. Levi-Strauss also suggested that myth offered the "illusion" of being able to "understand the universe," which suggests a psychological purpose to myth creation (cited by Bierlein, p. 262).

Freud believed that myths shared a language with dreams, and were ultimately the "products of repressed individual childhood memories played out in conscious language," (Bierlein, p. 282). Unlike Jung, Freud did not believe that myths were "the products of any myth-producing area of the unconscious universal to all human beings," (Bierlein 282). Instead Freud explained the phenomenon of parallel myths in terms of a shared human psychological experience; human beings share the same neuroses. Parallel myths occur because all human beings share similar biological, psychological, and social experiences.

Jung, on the other hand, conceived of a collective unconscious that was shared by all human beings. Dreams and myths are "definitely related," according to Jung, but are not "the products of individual memories," (Bierlein p. 290). Instead, Jung thought the personal unconscious was "superficial," (cited by Bierlein p. 292). Unlike Freud, Jung believed the collective unconscious was the wellspring from where myth spouted. The collective unconscious was for Jung a "psychic substrate of a suprapersonal nature," (cited by Bierlein p. 292)