Carl Jung Theory Of Myth Essay

Myth is an often misunderstood subject that involves the foundations of any religion today. Due to the connotations of the word now, religious people find the implication of the word “myth” to be the equivalent of “false”. Of course, when applied to their own religion, this is found to be incredibly disrespectful coming from scholars studying the subject. However, nowadays the meaning of myth has been confused with the definition of a fairytale, a fictitious tale created to teach morals by the use of talking animals and supernatural elements. Myth can even be used in replacement of “misconception”, a false idea based on faulty thinking. After examining the different theories of myth by a variety of great anthropologists, we can find that these synonyms are simply not accurate when discussing it's role in religion.

In modern society, the word myth is thought of as replaceable of the word ”fictional”. In general conversation, mentioning something as a myth would imply it is false, or should be regarded as so at the very least. But myth is much more than another way to prove someone wrong, it is such an important subject that all religions and therefore cultures depend on it to tell their origin stories. To

The idea behind Jung's theory is that myth is born from a collective unconscious of mankind, or a society. We see reappearing imagery, or 'archetypes', because of this collective unconscious and interpret this into stories of myth. Out of the three theories, I most agree with Jung's psychotherapeutic theory. Throughout history we can see different cultures adapt archetypal roles into their myth, while having no contact with another religion that shares similar aspects. I think this is because there is something in us as humans to search for the same thing, no matter our culture or our place of origin. There is something in us that seeks a