Absolutely! And that's a HUGE subject, and my brain is too fuzzy now to give it the thoughtful response it deserves!
But let me throw out a few things from my odd major - -which was mythology with a concentration in "depth psychology," and explaining what the heck that means almost ties into what you're saying. The premise in this particular school of thought is that mythological symbols are symbols that resonate with, epitomize, and provide a common psychological frame of reference for a community or a lot of people who think along similar lines. There's a lot in human psychology that is not rational or logical, but based on instincts, feelings, and -- in a very profound way -- the incomprehensible patterns of life that so many of us face, such as loss, adolescence, childbirth, separation, death, age, etc. These are big and scary and hit us in deep psychological ways.
Stories -- myths, religion, symbols -- are irrational ways of explaining them, which may not be literally true, but ring true for us at a psychological level. The stories and symbols that ring true for lots of people, over a period of time, get preserved as myths or institutionalized in religion.
That's what Joseph Campbell said, building on what Jung said.
Jung's collective unconscious wasn't so much a telepathic hive mind, but rather, the idea that certain repeating patterns in human experience actually tend over time to pattern our psychology in certain ways. (For example, people who don't listen to Mom or don't protect mothers from being killed may not prosper as much as people who listen to Mom and protect Mom, and over time mother-reverence becomes hardwired until Mother Goddess figures are part of cultural symbolism). Different cultures may latch onto or exaggerate different facets of the archetype, but certain archetypes pop up over and over because they help us deal psychologically with things that happen over and over in human lives.
Other psychological symbols, impulses and thoughts may not be universal -- not everybody relates to The Spock -- but it's a common enough experience, or something that "rings true" for a lot of people, that that symbol, too, recurs again and again.
All these symbols and myths help us tell things that can't be put into words, but that we feel. They ring true for lots of people. They crop up over and over. Maybe it's Loki, or Brother Coyote, or Anasazi the Spider, or Brer Rabbit, or Reno, or Zidane, but that tricker just keeps making sense, whatever his particular manifestation!
But the expression -- the manifestation -- is never quite the same, since it's shaped by the particular experiences, symbols, and language of the storyteller, the community, the culture where it's popping up.
Obviously, this is a very agnostic (not quite atheist, but definitely agnostic) way of looking at religion and belief -- as psychological patterns rather than divine truths. But it certainly helps explain the recurrence of certain psychological types, roles, and exaggerated life situations in video games!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-03-21 03:47 am (UTC)But let me throw out a few things from my odd major - -which was mythology with a concentration in "depth psychology," and explaining what the heck that means almost ties into what you're saying. The premise in this particular school of thought is that mythological symbols are symbols that resonate with, epitomize, and provide a common psychological frame of reference for a community or a lot of people who think along similar lines. There's a lot in human psychology that is not rational or logical, but based on instincts, feelings, and -- in a very profound way -- the incomprehensible patterns of life that so many of us face, such as loss, adolescence, childbirth, separation, death, age, etc. These are big and scary and hit us in deep psychological ways.
Stories -- myths, religion, symbols -- are irrational ways of explaining them, which may not be literally true, but ring true for us at a psychological level. The stories and symbols that ring true for lots of people, over a period of time, get preserved as myths or institutionalized in religion.
That's what Joseph Campbell said, building on what Jung said.
Jung's collective unconscious wasn't so much a telepathic hive mind, but rather, the idea that certain repeating patterns in human experience actually tend over time to pattern our psychology in certain ways. (For example, people who don't listen to Mom or don't protect mothers from being killed may not prosper as much as people who listen to Mom and protect Mom, and over time mother-reverence becomes hardwired until Mother Goddess figures are part of cultural symbolism). Different cultures may latch onto or exaggerate different facets of the archetype, but certain archetypes pop up over and over because they help us deal psychologically with things that happen over and over in human lives.
Other psychological symbols, impulses and thoughts may not be universal -- not everybody relates to The Spock -- but it's a common enough experience, or something that "rings true" for a lot of people, that that symbol, too, recurs again and again.
All these symbols and myths help us tell things that can't be put into words, but that we feel. They ring true for lots of people. They crop up over and over. Maybe it's Loki, or Brother Coyote, or Anasazi the Spider, or Brer Rabbit, or Reno, or Zidane, but that tricker just keeps making sense, whatever his particular manifestation!
But the expression -- the manifestation -- is never quite the same, since it's shaped by the particular experiences, symbols, and language of the storyteller, the community, the culture where it's popping up.
Obviously, this is a very agnostic (not quite atheist, but definitely agnostic) way of looking at religion and belief -- as psychological patterns rather than divine truths. But it certainly helps explain the recurrence of certain psychological types, roles, and exaggerated life situations in video games!