EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF

MYTHOLOGY'

JACOB A. ARLOIV, h3.D.

Descending like a meteor from the heavens, then wafted gently

earthward on the streams of the terrestrial atmosphere, in a boat
especially fashioned to protect him from the terrors of the sun-
filled darkness of outer space, the first cosmonaut of history
emerged from his capsule. I n less than twenty-four hours, a t a
speed incomparably greater than any ever ascribed to the winged
Hermes, messenger of the Gods, there raced around the world the
echoes of an ancient story. This hero, the son of a Soviet carpenter,
the report said, was actually descended from distinguished no-
bility. IVithin the day, the mythopoetic function of mankind had
already embraced the first hero of the space age.
Joseph Campbell (1 1) writes:
RIan apparently cannot maintain himself in the universe
without belief in some arrangement of the general inheri-
tance of myth. I n fact, the fullness of his life would even seem
to stand in direct ratio to the depth and range not of his
rational thought, but of his local mythology. Whence the
force of these insubstantial themes, by which they are em-
powered to galvanize populations, creating of them civiliza-
tions, each with a beauty and self-compelling destiny of its
own? And why should it be that whenever men have looked
for something solid on which to found their lives, they have
chosen not the facts in which the world abounds, but the
myths of an immemorial imagination-preferring even to
make life a hell for themselves and their neighbors, in the
name of some violent God, rather than to accept gracefully
the bounty the world affords?
From Freud on, psychoanalysts have studied the compelling,
unknown, and ofttimes irrational forces of the human mind, I n
neurosis, art, character, and religion, in the sum of the individu-
1 Presidential Address, presented before the American Psychoanalytic Association,
Chicago, May 7, 1961.

371

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372 JACOB A. ARLOIV

al’s and of the community’s mental creations, psychoanalysis has

traced the derivatives of the compelling infantile psychic con-
flicts, conflicts which involve man’s instinctual life, rooted in his
essential, biological nature, and transformed by his childhood
experiences. I n the stellar cosmogonies of ancient mythology, for
example, psychoanalysis sees writ large, in the heavens, projec-
tions of grandiose elaborations of the instinctual conflicts of child-
hood.
Psychoanalytic study of myths holds great promise for the social
scientist. R6heim (60, Gl), for example, has shown how the analy-
sis of mythology can be used to understand the dominant, current,
psychological conflicts in members of a particular culture. Bona-
parte (!I , M y t h s of War, studied rathcr typical, mental
in)her
creations of the group during periods of great catastrophe.
Through these “spontaneously generated” myths one could dis-
cern the reactivation of latent unconscious wishes, together with
defensive maneuvers instituted to keep anxiety in check. These
are but two examples. T h e list could be extended at length.
One would imagine therefore that sixty years after the publica-
tion of T h e Interpretation of Dreams, Freud’s first foray into the
study of mythology, social scientists would have a clear under-
standing of what psychoanalysis can contribute to the study of
mythology. This is hardly the case. In the name of a later-day
scientism many students of folklore and mythology have rejected
out of hand the contribution which psychoanalysis has to make
to their field. They have disowned it in a manner as Philistine
as characterized the repudiation by the early critics of Freud’s
monumental Interpretation of Dreams.
T h e principal criticism, to quote Dorson (15), is directed against
the arbitrary use of “symbolism of the unconscious.” IVith this
method, he says,

. . . everything falls neatly into place, and dreams, myths and

fairy tales tell one common story, a genital-anal saga. . . .
Just as the celestial mythologists wrangled over the primacy
of sun, stars and storms, so now do the psychoanalytical
mythologists dispute over the symbols of the unconscious. . . .
T h e language of the unconscious is as conjectural and as
inconclusive as Sanscrit, when applied to myths and tales.

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND hlYTHOLOGY 373
The interpretations differ widely from each other; which is
right? T h e psychoanalysts, like the philologists, come to the
materials of folklore from the outside, anxious to exploit
them from their own a priori assumptions.
This critique written less than two years ago contains arguments
which might have carried considerable weight in the past, before
the development of ego psychology. Psychoanalytic interpretations
of myths do not necessarily approach the materials of folklore
from the outside, nor is it inevitably true that no validation of
symbolic interpretations is possible. What we encounter in this
critique is another manifestation of “cultural lag.” Dorson’s esti-
mate of psychoanalytic methodology is based primarily on materi-
als studied from the topographic point of view and from a type
of interpretation practiced before the impact of ego psychology
made itself felt on the technique of psychoanalysis. Of course,
Ilot all anthropologists or students of mythology share this view of
psychoanalytic methodoIogy; nor are they a11 victims of this cul-
tural lag. We can hardly expect workers in allied fields, however,
to keep abreast of the subtler implications of newer psychoanalytic
concepts when a similar lag often exists in our own ranks. Even
among the better informed mythologists a number of misconcep-
tions have developed and persist. They believe that psychoana-
lysts assume that myths and dreams are indistinguishable. While
they recognize the closeness of mythology to literature, they do
not appreciate the difference which psychoanalytic ego psychology
introduces in the evaluation of the function of dreams, myths, and
literary creations.
One purpose of this communication is to demonstrate how o u r
knowledge of ego psychology may enable us to establish a frame
of reference within which psychoanalytic study of mythology may
be based on methods which can be validated. A brief historical
retrospect may serve to put the problem into focus. Rank’s first
contribution to the study of mythology, T h e Myth of the Birth
of the Hero (52), and Abraham’s “Dreams and Myths” (1) ap-
peared only nine years after T h e Interpretation of Dreams and
only four years after the Three Contributions to the Theory of
Sex. This was at a time when psychoanalysis was still a very new
science. T h e scientific world rejected its basic concepts and ridi-

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374 JACOB A. ARLOIV

culed its findings. Rereading Rank’s book one appreciates how

his efforts were directed toward securing, from the study of myths,
evidence which would validate the correctness of what psycho-
analysis had learned about the Unconscious, especially infantile
sexual wishes. His method was to use the manifest content of
myths to prove what psychoanalysis had discovered about the
latent content of dreams and symptoms. T h e difficulties in his
method (and the methods of those who followed him in this field)
began when he carried the argument one step further. Rank re-
versed the process of study. H e used the “mechanisms of the un-
conscious,” especially symbolism, to find new or latent meanings
in the manifest content of the myth. Having thus reinterpreted
the myth, he used these data once again to validate the correct-
ness of the psychoanalytic concept of unconscious infantile sexual
wishes. It was the simultaneous pursuit of two independent scien-
tific goals which laid works of this kind open to the criticism of
being arbitrary and proceeding from a priori assumptions.
It must be admitted, however, that the theory of technique as
based on the topographic hypothesis facilitated the use of arbi-
trarily stated interpretations and of ready access to explanations
based on symbolism (33). Some of these ideas were discussed re-
cently in a contribution to the problem of silence in the thera-
peutic situation (6). Technique based on the topographic theory
was directed toward the goal of making what was unconscious
conscious. T h e dream was the royal road to the unconscious, and
symbolism was the easiest avenue to the interpretation of dreams.
T h e notion that it was necessary to modify the ego’s defenses, to
alter its automatic operations, came much later (44). Interpreta-
tions based on symbolism emphasized the importance of content
over the role played by resistance (39, 45). TVhen the patient was
in a state of positive transference, the theory went, he accepted
the therapist’s interpretation of the dream, and this translation of
the unconscious material, accompanied by a sense of conviction,
had its therapeutic effect.
Freud, Abraham, and the other pioneers had commented on
the similarity between dreams and myths. Myths could be in-
terpreted like dreams, and in the absence of associations, psycho-
analytic knowledge of symbolism could be used to elucidate the

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND AIYTHOLOGY 375

“meaning” of the myth. What this meaning signified was not

clear.2 In addition, i t turned out that there was little reason to
on the positive transference of the mythologists or the
No subjective sense of conviction was induced in
tllem by these interpretations. There was something prophetic
&out this development, since in later years it turned out that
even in the practice of therapeutic analysis the sense of conviction
and a positive relationship to the therapist did not always go hand
in hand.
psychoanalysis has a greater contribution to make to the study
of mythology than demonstrating, in myths, wishes often en-
countered in the unconscious thinking of patients. T h e myth is
a particular kind of communal experience. It is a special form of
shared fantasy, and it serves to bring the individual into relation-
ship with members of his cultural group on the basis of certain
common needs. Accordingly, the myth can be studied from the
point of view of its function in psychic integration-how it plays
a role in warding off feelings of guilt and anxiety, how it con-
stitutes a form of adaptation to reality and to the group in which
the individual lives, and how it influences the crystallization of
the individual identity and the formation of the superego.
Since the myth has been described as a universally shared fan-
tasy, let us proceed with a more detailed investigation of that
type of mental activity which may be designated as unconscious
fantasy thinking (23, 25). This form of mental function is of a
peculiarly inchoate nature. It is dynamically related to the per-
sistent cathectic potential emanating from the pressure of the
instinctual wishes of the id. In keeping with the primary-process
mode of operation these wishes seek immediate and complete dis-
charge. By complete we understand that these wishes try to acti-
vate the mental apparatus to bring about the experiencing of a
set of sensory impressions identical with a previously perceived
2The problem of the meaning of myth has confronted anthropologists and
mythologists. Leach (42) divides the purpose or meanings of myths into two classes:
1: hlyths explain the inexplicable, e.g.. the origin of the xcorld, and
2: Myths are a kind of word magic whose purpose is to alter the harsh facts of
reality by manipulating symbolic representations of these facts.
There is, furthermore, a large group of mythologists (31, 43, 4s) who regard myth
as a memory precipitate of early social action or ritual. T h e myth and its associated
rile are considered to be two aspects of a unitary entity.

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376 JACOB A. ARLOW
set of sensory impressions of a highly gratifying nature. T o the
developing ego falls the task of delaying the immediate discharge
of these impulses or of facilitating their expression in an adaptive,
integrated manner, avoiding intrapsychic conflict, anxiety, or clash
with the world of reality.
Unconscious fantasy thinking is one level of the ego’s integration
of the instinctual demands of the id. Its cathectic potential is active
at a11 moments of the individual’s life, with the possible exception
of deep narcosis or dreamless sleep. T h e intrusion of unconscious
fantasy thinking into conscious mental experience is well known
to us from the study of hallucinations, dreams, and daydreams.
More recent investigation has shown how this tendency plays a
roIe in the structuring of perception and in the interpretation oE
external reality. Potzl (51), Fisher (17, IS), and others have con-
firmed Freud’s clinical conclusion that almost all sensory stimuli
receive some sort of mental registration, often outside the scope of
consciousness. T h e awareness of perceiving requires an additional
mental operation, a certain kind of cathectic investment, which is
related to a very large extent to the instinctual life as expressed in
iantasy wishes. T h e registration of sensory data is a continuous func-
tion (28); awareness is a discontinuous process depending in part on
the intermittent burst of cathectic investment as the unconscious
fantasy function of the ego scans the data of sensory registration
for items useful to its purposes. hlany illusions and misrepresenta-
tions of reality are based upon the intrusion of this activity into
the neutral function of checking the raw data of perception.
Depending on the nature of the data of perception, the level of
cathectic potential, and the state of ego function, different forms
of mental products will emerge. It is out of this common matrix
of ego activity that dreams, symptoms, fantasies, and myths are
created. T h e pressure of the unconscious fantasy wishes orients
one of the aspects of ego activity to be ever alert to incorporate,
integrate, correlate, or misinterpret the data of perception and the
knowledge of the real world in keeping with its pleasure-seeking
purpose of discharge3 Thus the vision of a truly remarkable hero,
as in the case of our first cosmonaut, becomes integrated into
3 Martin H. Stein (66) discussed this matter recently from a somewhat different
point of view. Following Freud. he pIaced the intermittent burst of athexis, the

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY 377

&eady-existent structures of unconscious fantasy wishes, and the

lkrorld of reality is readily experienced in terms of inner need.
Chase (13) says, “The myth is an aesthetic device for bringing
the imaginary world of preternatural forces into a manageable
,-ooperation with the objective facts of life in such a way as to
excite a sense of reality amenable to both the unconscious and the
conscious mind.” As Beres (7) says, “JYithout imagination, reality
is only sensed and experienced; with imagination, reality becomes
a11 object of awareness.”
There is a hierarchy in the fantasy life of each individual (5), a
hierarchy which reflects the vicissitudes of individual experience
3s well as the influence of psychic differentiation and ego develop-
ment. T o use a very static analogy for a highly dynamic state of
affairs, we may say that unconscious fantasies have a systematic
relation to each other. Fantasies are grouped around certain basic
instinctual wishes, and such a group is composed of different ver-
sions or different editions of attempts to resolve the intrapsychic
conflicts over these wishes. Each version corresponds to a different
“psychic moment” in the history of the individual’s development.
It expresses the forces at play a t a particular time in the person’s
life when the ego integrated the demands of the instinctual wishes‘
in keeping with its growing adaptive and defensive responsibilities.
T o continue with a static analogy, we may conceive of the inter-
relationship between unconscious fantasies in terms of a series of
superimposed p h o t o p p h i c transparencies in which at different
times and under different psychic conditions one or more of these
organized images may be projected and brought into focus.

“sanning mechanism,” a t a more superficial level in the mental apparatus (Pcpt.-

Cx.). He considered these relationships within the framework of the topographic
hypothesis and emphasized the importance of different stages of consciousness.
Accordingly. h e equated the treatment situation with sleeping and free association
with dreaming. In the discussion, Bertram D. Lerrin continued this line of reason-
ing, adding that artistic creation is the written o r plastically represented dream.
This type of reasoning minimizes the role of the ego contribution to the different
forms of mental products. I t makes identical things which are only analogous. As
stated above, in my view, dreams, fantasies. symptoms, etc., stem from a common
matrix. They derive their specific form by the manner i n which the ego modifies
the cxpressions of the instinctual impulse i n ordcr to serve its various purposcs
of defense, adaptation, integration. etc. Formulations utilizing the topographic
hypothesis i n a narrow sense tend to create the impression that myths a n d dreams
are indistinguishable.

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378 JACOB A. ARLOW

115th the passing of the oedipal phase a certain degree of organ-

ization of the unconscious fantasy life takes place. T h e fantasy
system tends to remain relatively constant as a characteristic fea-
ture of the organization of the individual psyche. This is another
way of expressing what is commonly known in psychoanalysis as
fixation. T h e derivative expressions of the unconscious fantasy
show the increasing effort of mastery by the ego. I n treating a
patient, when we succeed in effecting a genetic reconstruction of
the transformations of the childhood instinctual wishes, we are
frequently able to trace, in a temporal series, successive editions
of the fantasy expressions of these instinctual wishes. Clinical
experience demonstrates, furthermore, how one set of fantasies
may serve the function of defensively screening out another, re-
pudiated set of fantasies (56). T h e defensive needs of the ego may
be so strong as to lead the individual to cling to screening fantasies
of this nature with great intensity and to endow them with such
vividness that the fantasies are accepted‘ and experienced as real-
ities from the past. This is the phenomenon which Kris (41)
described in his study of the “Personal Myth.”
T h e step from the individual fantasy and the personal myth to
the shared fantasy and the communal myth requires a few com-
ments on group formation and the function of art. Most of this
is well known and will be referred to as briefly as possible. T h e
shared daydream is a step toward group formation. It leads to a
sense of mutal identification on the basis of common need, result-
ing in a type of unorganized group as Freud (27) described in
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Mythmakers thus
take their place alongside the poets and the prophets of the com-
munity. They give words and form to the ubiquitous fantasy
wishes of mankind. They present ready-made and communally
acceptable versions of wishes which heretofore were expressed in
guilt-laden private fantasies. Freud (21, 23), Rank (53), and Sachs
(62) have described the social function of art and the artist in
mitigating the individual sense of guilt. I n a study of the prophets
(4), I have shown how the same motivations operate in the realm
of the ecstatic religious revelation in the prophetic calling. Per-
haps society can exist only because the impossible burden of
instinctual renunciation which communal living demands can be

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND RIYTHOLOGY 379
&rogated nightly in dreams. Personal dreams and daydreams are
made to be forgotten. Shared daydreams and myths are instru-
ments of socialization. T h e myth, like the poem, can be, must be,
remembered and repeated. Externalization or projection of the
impulses which give rise to fantasy not only makes this process
of sharing possible, but, as Bruner (10) states, “Externalization
1nake.s possible the containment of terror and impulses by the
decorum of art and symbolism.” Mythology, art, and even religion,
are subsidiary, institutionalized instrumentalities which bolster
the social adaptation ordinarily made possible by the nightly
abrogation of instinctual renunciation in dreams.
In the genesis of myth, for the group, as for the individual, only
a kernel of realistic experience is necessary. T h e revision and
falsification, or both, of the past and its heroes by the group serve
the purpose of defense, adaptation, and instinctual gratification
for the group and its individual constituents; they also serve in
character building and superego formation. Only the shadow of a
real event is necessary on which to build the structure of the myth.
The essential substance is contributed by the inner needs of the
individual members of the group. Attempts, therefore, to recon-
struct in precise detail the putative events of a particular period
in the history of the group (30, 58, 59) seem to be based on un-
sound methods, if we take into account the defensive distortions
of the ego. I doubt whether such considerations are actually
relative to what psychoanalysis has to contribute to the study of
myth ol ogy.
Having considered the parallel function and development of
both myth and fantasy from the viewpoint of the ego, I believe
that we are in a position to make a number of suggestions which
are pertinent to the study of mythology.
1. It is not sufficient for us to be able to demonstrate, with
monotonous regularity, evidence of the same id wishes in the text
of the myth. By applying our knowing of ego psychology we obtain
insight into the differences between myths, even when these myths
deal with the same theme. Different mythological expressions on
the same basic theme correspond to the different defensive editions
of the unconscious fantasy in the life of the individual, external-
ized and artistically altered in correspondence with needs from

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380 JACOB A. ARLOW

various levels of psychic integration of the individual members

of the group. T h e specific form of the myth constitutes the art
form appropriate to the needs of the group.
2. According to hfurray (49), for the anthropologists and myth.
ologists, there are as many different possible classifications of myths
as serve the purpose of the particular investigator. Anthropologists
are limited to considering the manifest elements of the myth
whenever, for purpose of study, they attempt a classification. From
the psychoanalytic point of view, a study of comparative mythology
can be based on how the dynamic forces of the instinctual wish
are modified by the operations of the ego. It becomes possible, as
I hope to shorn, to group together a whole series of myths with
variant individual features according to the appeal which they
have in relation to specific psychological moments in the develop-
ment of the individual.
3. TVhat psychoanalysts understand by the meaning of a myth
requires clarification. Our methods of investigation are suited to
study the appeal of myths and their persistence as universal experi-
ences of mankind. While we study individuals, we are nonetheless
aware of the contribution to a general psychology of mythology
which psychoanalysis can make. Kluckhohn (38) expressed a similar
approach in evaluating the significance of the study of mythology:
T h e persistence [of myths] cannot be understood except on
the hypothesis that these images have a special congeniality
for the human mind as a consequence of the relation of chil-
dren to their parents and other childhood experiences which
are universal rather than culture bound . the recurrence ..
of certain motifs in varied areas, separated geographically
and historically, tells us something about the human psyche.
It suggests that the interaction of a certain biological apparatus,
in a certain kind of physical world, with such inevitables of
the human condition [the helplessness of infants, two parents
of different sex, etc.] brings about some regularities in the
formation of imaginative productions, of powerful images.
Cassirer (12) reaches similar conclusions from the study of
language and metaphor.
I n part, what I have attempted till now is a psychoanalytic
explanation of the special congeniality of myths for the human
mind. From our study of individual patients we are in a position

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND hfYTHOLOGY 381

determine which aspects of the individual’s psychic struggle is

as having been externalized in the myth. A recurrent,
relatively identical, reaction on the part of our patients to the same
mythological material forms the basis upon which we can validate
our “interpretation” of a myth. Of course, the size of the sample
constitutes a methodological problem, b u t may I remind you that
Freud’s (22) interpretation of rescue myths and fantasies, based
on the study of only a handful of patients, was verified subse-
quently by hundreds, if not thousands, of similar observations.
I propose now to illustrate the usefulness of these hypotheses
by correlating them with clinical data from the study of individual
patients. For purposes of illustration I have chosen mythological
variations on a basic theme of childhood experience. I refer to
those myths which are expressions of the practically universal
fantasy wish to acquire the father’s phallus by devouring it and
using the omnipotent organ in keeping with the child’s notions
about its functioning. Using this fundamental theme as an organ-
izing principle, it becomes possible to bring together a whole
series of mythic expressions, many of which in the past have been
studied separately. For the purposes of this exposition, it will be
advantageous to concentrate on three major expressions of this
theme; other reasons for these choices will become apparent in
what is to follow. I will also have occasion to refer to intermediate
forms or regressive variations of these three major expressions
of the wish to castrate the father. T h e three mythological forma-
tions are Jack and the Bean Stalk, the tragic myth of Prometheus,
and the Bible story of Moses receiving the Law a t Mt. Sinai. (The
fairy tale is admissible since anthropologists consider fairy tales
truncated myths.)
Even in the manifest content of these myths one can discern
several similarities. In each case the hero ascends on high and
returns with some token of power, wealth, or knowledge from a n
omnipotent figure resident in the heavens. I n the first two in-
stances the hero is a thief, and his relationship to the father imago
is one of patent hostility. I n the case of Moses, however, the hero
is in harmonious relation with the God image, united with it in
the fulfillment of a common purpose. It is important to stress
these differences because in the patients whose treatment forms

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382 JACOB A. ARLOW

the basis of this study it was possible to observe how each had
been, in turn, a mischievous or perhaps psychopathic Jack, a
Prometheus, and a Moses. Identification with these o r similar
figures met the needs of these patients a t different points in their
lives.
T h e fairy-tale version of this problem belonged to the wish-
fulfilling tendency of childhood in which contribution of the
superego is minimal and unformed and the fear of retaliation is
disposed of omnipotently (24). I t was striking to observe in the
analysis of a twenty-five-year-oldman, for example, the persistence
of such primitive expressions of his oedipal wishes. This patient
suffered from severe learning and work inhibitions. H e was over-
awed by his self-centered, seemingly omnipotent father who was
an arrogant, unscrupulous, and successful businessman. This
patient’s favorite motion picture was The Thief of Bagdad. He
remembered it from childhood and arranged repetitively and
compulsively to see every revival of the movie on the screen or on
television. T h e scene in which the young thief enters the temple
high in the Himalayas to steal the magic jewel from the forehead
of the gigantic Buddha filled him with intense and pleasurable
excitement. Almost any plot in second-rate literature or in the
movies was re-edited in his fantasy to correspond almost literally
to the Jack and the Bean Stalk story. Fixated a t this primitive
level of wish fulfillment and overcome by uncontrollable fear
of retaliation, he remained in actuality an eternally frustrated
Prometheus, not daring even for a moment to lay hands on the
divine power of learning. For a brief period during adolescence he
escaped from the paralyzing effect of his father by way of an
identification with a counselor at a religious camp. I n this at-
mosphere, for a period of two months, he became creative and
energetic, demonstrating qualities of leadership and imagination
he never knew he possessed. H e had temporarily found a new
identity, subjectively expressed in keeping with his grandiose
narcissistic needs in terms of being a Moseslike figure, represent-
ing the entire human race in a second confrontation with God.
Unfortunately, when he returned from camp to the realistic
confrontation with his father, this new identity crumbled
ignominiously.

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND AlYTHOLOGY 383
T h e myth of Prometheus has been studied extensively, and the
theme of the theft of the phallus was noted early by Abraham (1)
and Freud (29). TVhat is epitomized in this variation is the stage
beyond the untroubled wish fulfillment of the simple fairy tale,
the overwhelming impact of the fear of retaliation. This myth
memorializes the stage of psychic development before the renun-
ciation of the oedipal wishes and the institution of the superego.
It is a primitive parable of moraIity pointing to the desirability
of establishing internal prohibition and condemnation in order to
lvard off punishment and castration, but still without the helpful
reinforcement of the identification with the more neutralized,
more realistic, genuinely moral image of the father.
T h e myth of Moses receiving the Law represents a later and
different elaboration of the same motif. T h e image of Moses as a
rebellious son is given several representations in the Bible, not
only in relation to his foster father, Pharaoh, but also on at least
one occasion in the form of disobedience to God's commands. It
is striking that in all these instances the omnipotent wand figures
importantly.
In the story of Moses at hlt. Sinai one can see a number of
progressive developmental steps in the transformation of the
elements contained in the Prometheus myth. 'CVhat was originally
a crime of defiance and aggression against the gods is, in this later
version, represented as carrying out the wishes of God Himself.
IVhat has intervened is the process of identification, the identifica-
tion between a mortal and a God (between father and son). T h e
identification is on a moral, rather than on an instinctual, level.
The process of identification has eventuated in a sublimation, and
the area of gratification has concomitantly been shifted to the
feelings of narcissistic omnipotence. T h e return of the repressed
does not escape the mythmaker either, and hfoses descending the
mountain with the divine knowledge which is to be the gift for all
mankind is now hardly distinguishable from God. T h e divine
fire suffuses Moses in the form of the enveloping light, and shafts
of light or horns extend from his head. T h e sins of indulgence
and rebelliousness are now displaced onto the unruly mob of
Israelites, and Moses and God, the self (ego) and the moral pre-
cepts of the father generation (superego) become as one in con-

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384 JACOB A. ARLOW

demning the immorality of others. T h e h4osaic myth thus repre-

sents an elaboration of the basic theme reflecting the type of
ego organization associated with the beginning formation of the
superego.(
I hope that no oversimplified conception of an orderly progres-
sion of fantasy formations will be inferred from what has been
presented till now. Clinical experience, I have said, shows how
various wishes from different phases of development are fused
into one set of fantasy images, even as the fantasy is being experi-
enced consciously. Regressive reactivation of repressed wishes of
an earlier phase may be permitted expression by the ego if certain
conditions are satisfied. There is a variation, for example, of the
sublimated expression of the h4oses fantasy which is pertinent.
Recorded in the Bible is a vivid description of the revelation to
Ezekiel a t the institution of his prophetic calling. T h e future
prophet first sees the exalted image of God seated on a throne. His
vision then concentrates on the fiery phallus of the Lord, and
finally a parchment roll containing the word of the Lord is forcibly
inserted into the mouth of the prophet. It has the taste of sweet
liquid, like honey. With the incorporation of God’s word the
prophet is transformed into a special, omnipotent person, speaking
for and identified with God. This version of the fantasy wish to
incorporate the father’s phallus demonstrates a process to which
Ernst Kris (40) has called attention, namely, that with the estab-
lishment of certain sublimations, a regressive reactivation of in-
stinctual wishes and indulgence may be permitted. This element
is one of the most significant appeals of myths and mythmaking.
T h e problem of different levels of myth and of different repre-
sentations of the same mythological hero has been studied by
many anthropologists. They have proposed various evolutionary,
historical, moral, and “rational” explanations to account for this
phenomenon. There is, for example, a favorite mythological char-
acter in American Indian folklore designated as the “Trans-
former.” This hero is the mythological being who changed the
( T h e Bible story of Jacob’s Dream and the events surrounding it. namely, the
tlecciving of Isaac with the assistance of Rebecca, belong in this series. Niederland
(50) has studied this myth, placing special emphasis on certain symbols of transition
which arc psychologically significant in the transition from the son to the father
generation.

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND hlYTHOLOGY 385
world from its original state into its present condition. H e is
ictured as killing the monsters which infested the land and as
Piving man the arts that make life worth living. Boas (8) writes:
g
4 ~ ~ the o wTransformer often appears in two guises: he may be a
Prometliean culture hero, a benevolent being who wishes to
protect and benefit mankind, but he is much more likely to appear
as a trickster (such as the Raven, Mink, Bluejay, Coyote, Old Man,
Manabosho, or Glooscap of the American Indians), a n irre-
sporlsible or utterly selfish creature who benefits man incidentally
in pursuing his own libidinous or rapacious desires.” Boas con-
jectures that in the original American mythologies the selfish and
fibidirlous Transformer appeared much more undisguisedly than
he does in later versions, and that he was pictured as a moral
being only gradually “with the progress of society.” Indeed, the
discrepancy in his character sometimes becomes so striking and
“the friction between the two groups of tales” so pronounced,
that the “personage of the Transformer [is] split in two or more
p r t s , the one representing the true culture hero, the other retain-
ing the features of the trickster.”
Chase (13) comments that Boas’s theory is only a conjecture,
and he notes that this theory falls back on the idea of evolutionary
progress to explain the dual character of the Transformer as he
appears in different myths. H e in turn proposes to interpret this
phenomenon on a broad “social role” plane. H e sees, in the
mriant mythological expressions of a fundamental theme, evidence
of the struggle between mankind in general and the Priest-
&thinker, between the magician and the religious man. From the
psychoanalytic point of view the persistence of such contradictory
representations would seem to be more readily accountable in
Perms of the appeal to different levels of fantasy formation. In the
EWO aspects of the Transformers we may recognize once again the
biry-tale-Jack and the Prometheus-levels of ego integration
of the basic id wish.
A similar set of conditions prevails in another group of myths
which superficially seem quite different but which genetically are
idcntical. T h e Bible story of Abraham and Sarah is well known.
This childless couple had been exemplary hosts to three angels,
the messengers of God in disguise. Before the angels depart they

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386 JACOB A. ARLOJV

predict to Sarah that a son will be born to her before the year is
past. There is a Greek myth about Baucis and Philemon (14, 32).
They too entertained the gods in disguise. TVhen the gods revealed
themselves and wished to reward the couple for their hospitality,
the aged Philemon makes his request in the following words:
“IVe have lived together for many years and in all that time there
has never been a word of anger between us. Now at last we are
growing old and our own companionship is coming to an end.
Grant us this one request that when we come to die we may
perish in the same hour and neither of us be left without the
other.” This wish the gods granted, and when the time finally
came, this devoted couple was transformed into a pair of trees
growing side by side, their leaves and branches interlaced. Baucis
and Philemon had been a childless couple.
T h e erotic significance of death and dying has been described
in the literature, particularly in Abraham’s poetic interpretation
of “The Bride of Death Ritual” (2) and in Jones’s study of the
nightmare (34). Death, furthermore, is a tomorrowland where all
wishes come true. In addition, in two separate contributions (35,
36), Jones demonstrated that the conscious fantasy of dying to-
gether has the unconscious significance of a wish to have a child,
an example of a defensive representation by the opposite. Further
proof that these two myths have a common genetic origin may be
seen in the fact that in each case a definite period of time must
elapse before the wish for a child is fulfilled. Clearly this fantasy
may be traced back no earlier than the period during which the
child becomes aware of the necessary physiological interval pre-
ceding childbirth. T h e defensive significance of premonition,
promise, and prediction has been elucidated by Stein (65) and
more recently by Schlesinger (63). I n essence, therefore, these two
myths must take their place alongside the classic myth of the
Annunciation to the hladonna and the Madonna’s conception
through the ear (37). These are all annunciation stories, that is,
myths of impregnation. I n the latter case, however, the sublimated
religious setting permits an undisguised regressive emergence of
the incestuous nature of the wish for the child.
T h e role of mythology in psychic differentiation and in char-
acter structure is most important in the development of the

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND hIYTHOLOGY 387

individual and of his integration with the ideals of the com-

munity. Bruner (10) says, “In the mythologically instructed com-
nlunity there is a corpus of images and models that provide the
pattern to which the individual may aspire; a range of metaphoric
identity.” T h e mythology of a particular culture or society points
tile direction to the younger generation for solutions for the in-
fantile instinctual conflicts. T h e horrible revenge wrought on
prometheus was in keeping with the characteristic, psychological,
methods employed in Greek society to influence the process of
instinctual renunciation in its developing generation. Freud (20)
indicated that in classical antiquity the instinct was elevated and
idealized, in contrast to our society, in which the object is ideal-
ized. T h e privilege of untrammeled instinctual indulgence was
the exclusive prerogative of the gods, and in order to effect the
necessary instinctual renunciation, early Greek religion and moral-
ity emphasized hubris, the arrogant presumption of the preroga-
tives of the gods, as the greatest of all crimes. One might paraphrase
the categorical imperative of Greek morality at this level as fol-
lows: One must do as the gods require, that is, be unlike them.
This stands in sharp contrast to the resolution of similar themes
as described in the myth of Moses. Here the categorical imperative
might be phrased otherwise: one should do what God says, be
like Him.
The major religions and certain, if not all of their rituals may be
seen from one point of view, as an example of mass participation
in a shared fantasy or myth. Previous studies of religion and rituals
emphasized the similarity to the structure of the obsessional
neurosis. This is too narrow a framework within which to view
the richness of religious experience. Religious observance affords
instinctual gratification through the medium of identification with
one or more of the central figures of the mythology upon which
the religion is based. In certain ways, from the point of view of
psychic integration, religion may discharge all the psychic func-
tions ascribed to the aesthetic experience. Certain rituals are
clearly and consciously a group acting-out of a mythological
theme, e.g., T h e Stations of the Cross. In other instances, the
mythological background of the ritual is quite unconscious, e.g.,
initiation rites (3, 57).

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388 JACOB A. ARLOIV

Anna Freud (19) has pointed out how each society tries to
fashion the younger generation in consonance with the ideals and
goals of the particular society. Through its mythology, the society
tends to induce a climate favorable to the realization of appro.
priate identifications (46, 47). Every society interprets and re-
interprets its history and its heroes in keeping with this need. TVhat
makes this technique so effective is the powerful, motive force
of the childhood instinctual wish through the medium of the
vicarious (unconscious) gratification which comes from identifica-
tion with the hero of the myth. T h e path is prepared for iden-
tification and subsequent character transformations in keeping
with the idealized qualities of the hero. So, for example, while the
little girl gets the unconscious incestuous wish fulfillment from her
identification with the Madonna, she is consciously directed to the
imitation of those ideal qualities of purity, virtue, and love which
are represented by the hladonna.
Several authors have concerned themselves with the problem
of the changing or disappearing myth. This is a well-known
cultural phenomenon, and from the psychoanalytic point of view
it reflects how a change in the group mores revitalizes or devital-
izes the mythical or legendary heroic image. Such a process of
transformation may be observed in certain aspects of Jewish ideal
formation. Before the rise of a militant nationalistic movement
the educational experiences of the young Jewish child were geared
toward creating a character structure adaptable to the needs of a
ghetto Diaspora. T h e appropriate ideal image in this process was
Rabbi Jochanan Ben Zakkai. H e was the teacher who, anticipating
the victory of the Romans and the fall of Jerusalem, arranged to
be smuggled out of the besieged city in a coffin. Brought before
the emperor, he prophesied the victory of Rome, and for these
good tidings was rewarded with permission to found an academy
for the further study of the Law. H e epitomized the qualities of
devotion to tradition by submission to temporal authority, In the
modern era, with its emphasis on nationalism, a reversal of values
has taken place, and history has been reinterpreted and re-evalu-
ated to emphasize, in a mythological way, different heroes-heroes
whose qualities would be in consonance with the adaptive needs
of modern character molding. T h e Maccabean heroes, long held

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND hlYTHOLOGY 389
in disrepute by Talmudic tradition, have been resurrected in
recent years with renewed vitality in keeping with these needs.
Tllese considerations bring us to a set of fascinating problems
for psychoanalysis, namely, the mythology of our age and the quest
for identity. A detailed presentation of my thoughts on these mat-
ters cannot be given in the remaining time. I would like, however,
sketch an outline of some of my ideas.
The solution of interpsychic conflicts by the process of renuncia-
tion and identification, that is, by the formation of the superego,
is never completely successful (16). T h e models for ideal formation
and identification afforded by the established religions have in
recent times clearly lost their appeal. One sees in our culture a
conflict between two competing mythologies, each tending to
mold character and psychic development in different ways. One
mythology, working through established institutions, tries to point
in the direction of internalized inhibitions and intrapsychic trans-
formation. Alongside this tendency of the official institutions,
however, is the opposing trend toward reinstitutionalization of
the ego ideal, in keeping with intensified narcissistic needs, and
tending toward the idealization of grandiosely conceived objects
from childhood. With increasing frequency, we see narcissistic
character difficulties and narcissistic neuroses, together with pa-
tients who cannot contain their conflicts within themselves by
the process of symptom formation, but who are forced to external-
ize them in various forms of acting out. I n her writings on the
narcissistic object choice and on pathological methods for regu-
lating self-esteem, Annie Reich (54, 55) has elucidated the quest of
such patients to realize in actuality an identification with these
exalted instinctualized objects. Disturbance of the sense of self
and’an “as if” confusion of identity are very prominent in these
patients. “It is not simply society which patterns itself on the
idealizing myths, but unconsciously it is the individual man as
well who is able to structure his internal clamor of identities in
terms of the prevailing myth. Life produces the myth and finally
imitates it.”
T h e outstanding cultural aspect of this problem is to be seen in
the worship of the new demigods of the mass media of communica-
tion. These heroes of our modern mythology are only thinly dis-

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390 JACOB A. ARLOIV
guised versions of the central figures of the Greek pantheon. They
are invested with omnipotent powers by a host of votive priests
and publicists, and after the fashion of the demigods are immune
from criticism for their heroic exploits of instinctual indulgence.
They act out the antisocial daydreams of the community. In
materialized form, made possible by the mass media of communi-
cation, they descend, if not from the heights of Olympus, at least
from hills of Hollywood, to dwell among us as living proof of the
possibility that identification with mythological, narcissistically
grandiose ego ideals of childhood can be realized i n the flesh.
Many sociologists are of the opinion that there is a crisis in
American culture generated by the confusion that has befallen
the myth of the happy man. These authorities feel that we are no
longer a “mythologically instructed community.” As a result one
finds a new generation in quest of a satisfactory or challenging
mythical image which would serve as a model for identification.
JVhen the prevailing myths fail to provide such external models
and fail to fit the varieties of man’s plight, “frustration expresses
itself in mythopoesis and then in the lonely search for internal
identity” (10). HOWdeep this process has progressed is dificult
to tell from the study of individual patients alone, but certain
clinical impressions of this change are reflected in the types of
patients we see, as has been mentioned above. Perhaps because the
official religious myths no longer fit the internal plights of those
who require them, there is a reactivation of the old mythologies.
hlythologically speaking, we are hardly an uninstructed commu-
nity, and the various media of mass communication, comic books,
and literature have been issuing forth a stream of reanimated
mythological figures indistinguishable from their classical proto-
types. Patients in quest of the realization of their narcissistic ego
ideals almost invariably introduce evidence of some such iden-
tification during the course of their treatment, from various repre-
sentations of the Greek gods to the heroes of the comic books. One
patient, for example, had only an imperfect understanding of a
latency fantasy of identification with the comic-book hero Captain
Marvel until she remembered the magic word “Shazam.” This
word served to transform the hero from an ordinary mortal into a
supernatural figure. T h e magic word was an acrostic made up of

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 EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY 391
the initials of the names of the Greek heroes, Socrates, Hercules,
Atlas, Zeus, Apollo, and Mercury. Each hero was introduced as
the representation of a specific ideal quality,
psychoanalysis itself becomes drawn into this myth and may
become part of it. T h e magic aura with which psychoanalysis is
endolved, a projection onto the analyst of the patients’ oivn feelings
of omnipotence, usually culminates during the treatment in some
version of the myth of P y p a l i o n and Galatea. Unfortunately, it
takes time and effort to convince the patient that in this fantasy, as
in all fantasies, the characters are all the patient’s oivn wishes,
projected representations of his own self. An interminable analysis
may result if one fails to resolve this aspect of the transference
mythology. It is even more ominous, Schmideberg (64)says, if the
analyst himseIf subscribes to this myth.
T h e regressive representation of mythology in concrete, audible,
and visual form in the mass media have important implications
for ego structuring (26) and fantasy formation during childhood
and adolescence. They also have bearing on problems of acting
out.
T h e practical, social applications of the study of mythology are
of enormous significance. T h e frightening success in recent history
of the conscious and ofttime malicious creation and exploitation
of myths gives us cause for concern about this aspect of mental life.
This, and many other related subjects, cannot be discussed in so
small a contribution to so grand a subject. What I have tried to do
is to indicate, with this limited introductory study, the great
promise which the proper use of psychoanalytic knowledge holds
for the understanding and perhaps for the mastering of the myth,
one of the most significant manifestations of the human spirit.
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Submitted May 20, 1961

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