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Psychology on mythology
In the video, Mike Rugnetta on Crashcourse Mythology gets the psychological perspective of
mythology. He analyzes the theories of both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and links these
theories to mythology. Freud has the opinion that most of the problems had a single cause; the
Oedipus, who was a Greek mythological figure (Wilson, 2009). Oedipus, used to say one day he
would kill his father and make a marriage to his mother and he ended up accidentally doing the
both. On this, Freud put forward the theory that young boys have a natural desire to take place of
their fathers and have sex with their mothers which is actually quite weird.
Carl Gustav Jung was Freud's friend. Jung had the argument that dreams could be understood by
"archetypes.", which he defined as those figures or notions which occurred across cultures and
history as well as history (McLeod, 1970). Jung implied a person's psyche to be an individual
manifestation of elements taken from the collective unconscious, elements also usually observed
in myth. The three archetypes of Jung described by Mike were the shadow, the anima/animus,
and the self. The shadow is a part of one’s unconscious mind and is a representative of all the
components of a person that they hate to acknowledge. Rage, sexual desire, or survival instincts
are the emotions included in it.
Next, the anima or animus, archetypes that accordingly occupy an aspect of the protagonist's self
in their unconscious mind. The last archetype is the self. It is a character which represents a total
and timeless unification of one’s conscious and unconscious parts. So it is a type not only of
supergo but of one’s collective self as well. The integration and appreciation which the self
represents is the objective of the journey, be it a mythical or a psychological one.

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Towards the end of the video, Mark uses the theories told by him to explain one of the most
common myths, the Star Wars. He attributes some of the success of Star Wars to its ability to
tap into something that all people have in common, somewhere in their collective
unconsciousness. They may however fear or hate to acknowledge segments of their personality,
as Jung implies, which has already been described in paragraph 2. Mark concludes by telling
that if we understand these theories, we can analyze myths and stories quite well. As described in
paragraph 3, the components of one’s personality decide how their psyche and their belief in
myth shall shape. Those who integrate themselves like Luke Skywalker, definitely have a
successful journey in their lives.
References
McLeod, S. (1970, January 01). Saul McLeod. Retrieved April 02, 2018, from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html
Wilson, S. (2009, March 08). Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex. Retrieved April 02, 2018,
from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sigmund-freud-oedipal-complex

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Psychology on mythology In the video, Mike Rugnetta on Crashcourse Mythology gets the psychological perspective of mythology. He analyzes the theories of both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and links these theories to mythology. Freud has the opinion that most of the problems had a single cause; the Oedipus, who was a Greek mythological figure (Wilson, 2009). Oedipus, used to say one day he would kill his father and make a marriage to his mother and he ended up accidentally doing the both. On this, Freud put forward the theory that young boys have a natural desire to take place of their fathers and have sex with their mothers which is actually quite weird. Carl Gustav Jung was Freud's friend. Jung had the argument that dreams could be understood by "archetypes.", which he defined as those figures or notions which occurred across cultures and history as well as history (McLeod, 1970). Jung i ...
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