"Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind" This passage from Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces suggests the importance of myths in men's daily lives. Campbell contends that myths create "the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural; manifestation" (Campbell 3). Thus, like Freud's concept of the "archaic remnants amid the psychic energy of the libido," these symbols serve as "spontaneous productions of the psyche" and cannot be repressed without incurring serious psychological damage. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud suggests the pervasiveness of the dream images in man's everyday life, as the following passage implies: "This symbolism is not peculiar to dreams, but is characteristic of unconscious ideation, in particular among the people, and it is to be found in folklore, and in popular myths, legends, linguistic idioms, proverbial wisdom, and current jokes, to a more complete extent than in dreams" (Freud 350-351).
Campbell further contends that the findings of Freud and Jung prove "irrefutably that the logic, the heroes, and the deeds of myth survive [even] into modern times" (Campbell 4). These images appear in the transformation that the subject undergoes on his physical or spiritual quest. Campbell suggests that these journeys "conduct people across the difficult thresholds of transformation that demand a change in the patterns not only of conscious but also of unconscious life." The author holds that these age-old "rites of passage" function on a literal level in terms of "birth, naming, puberty, marriage, or burial" (Campbell 10), yet can also encompass complex spiritual or emotional levels. Campbell maintains that these initiatory images, like Freud's notion of repression, when denied, will ultimately manifest themselves in other forms,including dreams, neurosis, or violence (Campbell 12). The hero, as the author points out, achieves his goal ironically through the self-imposed submission to his task, albeit physical, mental, or spiritual. This process often demands close introspection and a subsequent transformation corresponding with the cycle of death-and-rebirth.Change, in essence, plays the most dominant role, as Heraclitus suggests, because in its absence, no growth can occur (Campbell 17). The act of introspection frequently requires a mental or symbolic journey into the recesses of the unknown, sometimes personified by darkness, the unknown, a desert, jungle, deep sea, or an alien land (Campbell 79). At other times, this passage parallels a "womb symbol" (Campbell 91-92), like the Underworld which Orpheus must explore to regain Eurydice, or the "belly of the earth," where Christ told his apostles he must remain for three days. Christ's allusion here to Jonah equally applies in that the young man's flight from God provided time for his spiritual transformation, enabling him to resume his task in witnessing to the "heathen" Assyrians. In both cases, the hero undergoes a period of trial, re-adjustment, or psychological probing into the unconscious. As Hamann wrote, "Self-knowledge means a descent into hell, the subterranean region of the mind, but that is the way to deification"(Beguin, in White 34). The hero reaches a realization which he ultimately must project to an external world; he serves as a type of mirror, in the same manner as Hamlet when he tells his mother Gertrude that his words of truth will, like a mirror, reflects the immorality of her very soul (3.4.19-20). Sometimes, in his transformation, the hero must "slay " himself in order to discover "the center" of "his own existence" (Campbell 25). The subject, thus, undergoes a stage of "self-annihilation" or death from which he must emerge reborn (Campbell 91). This transformation, or ritual purging, corresponds with Aristotle's notion of catharsis, or emotional cleansing associated with tragedy (Campbell 26). The transition from tragedy to comedy, in a similar way, parallels the hero's psychological transition from darkness to light (Campbell 30) or from innocence to awareness (Campbell 77). In this respect, comedy serves as the element most essential for one's transformation from loss to redemption. Campbell describes these phases of the quest as 1) separation from the world, 2) a penetration to some source of power, and 3) a life-enhancing return (Campbell 35). Along his quest, the hero encounters obstacles and hopefully overcomes them with the aid of myths and images from his religion; however, modern man cannot transcend these forces because he no longer relies upon the elements of his faith to direct him. The author laments this state of spiritual loss, saying that "the psychological dangers through which earlier generations were guided" no longer exist because twentieth-century man has, for the most part, abandoned these protective "symbols and ritual exercises of their mythological and religious inheritance" (Campbell 104). Martin Buber sadly echoes this sentiment in I and Thou.
In comparison, the hero manifests specific features corresponding with the traditional tragic hero. He usually "suffers from a symbolic deficiency" (Campbell 37) which appears as a neurotic disorder, or the tragic flaw typically associated with Aristotle's concept of hubris or hamartia. In another respect, the protagonist must accept or reject a challenge, which if he hesitates, often leads to "providential" encouragement, as is the case with Hamlet whose ghostly father prompts him not to leave his task undone. In most cases, the initiate also possesses an inherent redemptive power (Campbell 39) which again parallels Aristotle's "larger than life" capabilities characterizing Greek tragedy.
Works Cited
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.