- Myth
- An involuntary collective statement based on an unconscious psychic experience.The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it experiences them. Myths are original revelations of the preconscious psyche . . . . Many of these unconscious processes may be indirectly occasioned by consciousness, but never by conscious choice. Others appear to arise spontaneously, that is to say, from no discernible or demonstrable conscious cause.["The Psychology of the Child Archetype," ibid., par. 261.]
read other definitions at the Lexicon of Jungian Terms
Particularly fascinating is the specification that the statement is collective and involuntary.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree completely — that it’s defined as “involuntary,” that it’s something that’s “experienced”– it reminds me of something Plato said on learning: the soul “knows” everything at birth, and what we refer to as learning is instead a process of discovering what’s already inside us.
(At least I think that’s Plato. And I may be paraphrasing him incorrectly.)
Yes, I believe it was Plato (Socrates). And it echoes what was written in the Bhagavad Gita as well — it’s a beautiful concept. Mysterious and enlivening, something that unites us all.