Who is Joseph Campbell?
He was a student of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
His term of Monomyth also referred as the hero's journery, which he also refer that his study of world myths is that THEY ARE ALL
BASICALLY THE SAME STORY -- retold endlessly in infinite variation.
He discovered that all story-telling, consciously or not, follows the ancient patterns of myth. There were always charecters of the young hero, the wise old man, the shape-shifting woman, and the shadowy nemesis, are identical with the archetypes of the human mind, as shown in dreams. That's why myths, and stories constructed on the mythological model, are always psychologically true.
Such stories are true models of the workings of the human mind, true maps of the psyche. They are psychologically valid and realistic even when they portray fantastic, impossible, unreal events.
This accounts for the universal power of such stories. Stories built on the model of THE HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES have an appeal that can be felt by everyone, because they spring from a universal source in the collective unconscious, and because they reflect universal concerns. They deal with universal questions like "Why was I born?" "What happens when I die?" "How can I overcome my life problems and be happy?"
No doubt, he has describes 17 stages, but not all myths contain these stages. Anyway, these 17 stages he organised into 3 sections: Departure/Separation, initiatin and return.
Departure - the hero's adventure after receiving the quest,
Initiation - the many adventure of the hero,
Return - hero return home with the knowledge and power acquired on the journey.
(to be continued - my further study on associating J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Joseph Campbell's Monomyth - hero's journey)
Melinda, you have arrived, once you begin to understand and appreciate the workings of the unconscious, your therapeutic work and your own psychological and spiritual development will be enhanced and enriched a thousand fold. Such development can only be due to your own efforts, and timing.......well done. You have certainly journeyed into the inner landscape since we begin the CPPD last year and I hope you continue to transverse the limitless space of our minds.
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