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The Cry for Myth

Page 27

by May, Rollo


  adolescents:

  independence asserted by, 39

  Orestes myth and, 39, 40

  relationships between, 214

  Adrienne (case history), 63–65, 67

  advertising, 113, 119, 140–141, 242, 267

  Aeneid (Virgil), 156, 157, 166

  Aeschylus, 16

  see also Oresteia, The

  Agamemnon, 231

  “Age of Anxiety, The” (Auden), 208

  aggression, 283

  Ahab (biblical), 277

  Ahab, Captain, 277, 278-281, 282

  Air and Space Museum, 55

  airplanes, 224n

  Alcoholics Anonymous, 61, 190

  Alexander, Franz, 102

  Alger, Horatio, 115–118

  Sisyphus myth vs., 146

  success prototype created by, 117–118,131

  see also “Luke Larkin’s Luck”

  alienation, industrial development and, 242

  American culture:

  advertising and, 113,119,140–141, 242, 267

  change valued in, 101-106

  in Death of a Salesman, 43–44

  European historical sense vs., 99–100

  immigrant experiences and, 48, 49, 95-96

  individualism in, 108–110,115

  Jazz Age in, 55,125–127,128,133, 13, 137, 13,. 145

  loneliness in, 48, 96–101, 106

  luck and, 118,119–120

  middle west in, 110,142

  newness valued in, 101-104

  New World discovery and, 91-93

  politics and, 102,126

  psychological depression and, 113, 120-123

  rootlessness of, 48–49, 99

  violence in, 100

  wealth overemphasized by, 48, 56, 60, 106, 115, 119,123–124,131

  see also myth(s), American

  American dream:

  as ethical sanction, 131

  failure of, 126,137,141–144

  individual success as, 115

  myth of Sisyphus and, 146–147

  Wall Street takeovers and, 119

  American Indians:

  extermination of, 283

  puberty rituals of, 39, 290

  American Myth/American Reality (Robertson), 46, 115

  American Steel, 117

  Amish, 122

  Amphytrian 38 (Giraudoux), 293–294

  ancestral roots, 47-49

  Anders, Bill, 208

  androgyny, 36

  Answer to fob (Jung), 237

  Antigone, 83–84, 85

  Aphrodite, 39,111

  Apollonianism, 218

  Apollo 7, 298

  apotheosis, 290

  archetypes, 37, 38

  Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (Jung), 37n

  arête, defined, 29, 244-24;

  Aristotle, 28

  Arndt, Walter, 236n

  Arnold, Matthew, 152–153, 154,155, 235–236

  art:

  as criterion of spiritual health, 261

  Eros-Thanatos struggle and, 77

  myth vs., 28

  trivialization of, 43, 261-262, 266

  see also creativity

  Asimov, Isaac, 24n

  astrology, 22

  astronauts, 208–300, 300–301, 302

  Athena, 36, 284

  Auden, W. H., 208

  Augustine, Saint, 155, 161

  authors, cultural influences on, 170

  Bakker, James, 27, 225n

  Barnes, Hazel, 41

  bar mitzvah, 39

  Barton, Bruce, 126

  Bateson, Gregory, 25

  Beatles, 98

  Beatrice, 159,163,164,193, 220, 230, 253

  beauty, feminine, 228n, 242, 244-245

  Becker, Ernest, 53–54

  Beckett, Samuel, 42, 207, 209n

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 236, 262, 275, 282

  Bellah, Robert N., 69,110

  Benét, Stephen Vincent, 92-93, 218

  Berg, Bernice, 60

  Berger, Peter, 26

  Bethe, Hans, 219

  Bettelheim, Bruno, 28, 194

  Bible:

  astronauts’ reading of, 298

  church symbolism and, 51

  creation story in, 24

  Melville’s characters and, 277

  mythic names in, 43

  Satan described in, 271-272

  see also New Testament; Old Testament; specific books of Bible

  birth, 36, 38, 50

  “Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, The” (Nietzsche), 11, 45

  Blake, William, 261n, 274

  Boesky, Ivan, 56, 123, 124

  Bohr, Niels, 25

  Bok, Edward, 96

  Bonnie and Clyde, 95

  Boone, Daniel, 45, 94, 95

  Borman, Frank, 298

  Bosch, Hieronymous, 221

  bourgeosie, 242

  brain function, left- vs. right-, 25, 288

  Briar Rose (Grimm), 194-216

  alternate endings written for, 214–216

  case history related to, 197–109, 202, 210–214, 291

  creative waiting in, 205, 207, 208-209, 287-288

  evil element in, 201-202

  feminine development presented in, 196–197, 201, 203, 206, 212

  Oedipus Rex vs., 205

  Peer Gynt vs., 196,197

  story of, 199–200, 202–205, 206

  time imagery in, 203, 205-206

  title of, 194–196

  Broadway theater, 43

  Brockman, John, 25n

  Bronson, Matthew, 11

  Brothers Karamazov, The (Dostoevsky), 273

  Brueghel, Pieter, 227

  Bruner, Jerome, 16

  Buddenbrooks (Mann), 256

  Buddha, 95

  Buddhism, meditation practices and, 145

  Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), 95, 129n

  Buie, James, 121n

  business, women in, 291

  Byron, George Cordon, Lord, 94, 284

  Calamity Jane, 95

  Calvin, John, 220

  Calypso, 295-296

  Campbell, Joseph, 9, 20n, 37

  Camus, Albert, 147

  Cantos (Pound), 162

  capitalism, 288

  care:

  inability to, 133-135

  myth of, 250n

  Carnegie, Andrew, 96, 117

  carnivals, 50

  Carson, Kit, 45, 95

  case histories, see psychotherapy, case histories from

  Cassirer, Ernst, 26n, 92n

  castration, 81

  catharsis:

  Faust legend and, 221, 232-233

  Moby Dick and, 282–284

  cathedrals, 51, 77, 99–100, 195, 220

  Catholicism:

  church architecture and, 220,288

  see also Christianity

  celebrities, heroes vs., 55

  Central Park, Levin murder in, 50–61

  Cézanne, Paul, 275

  Chambers, Robert, Jr., 50–61

  change, myth of, 102-106

  in Great Gatsby, 102, 129, 130

  “Chapbook,” 221

  Charles (case history), 31–34, 69, 271

  Chernobyl, nuclear-power accident at, 301-302

  Childe Harold (Byron), 94

  childhood:

  community comfort needed in, 52–53

  earliest memories from, 64, 65, 66–67, 68-70

  sexual exploitation in, 73

  Chiron, 244n

  “Choir Invisible, The” (Eliot), 58-59

  Christianity:

  classical mythology attacked by, 24-25

  holy days of, 50

  individualism vs., 177

  puberty rituals of, 39

  Reformation and, 220

  sacraments of, 50–51

  Waiting for Godot and, 42

  see also Catholicism; Jesus Christ; Protestantism

  Christmas, 24, 50

  churches:

  community myth symbolized by, 51

 
; historical sense gained from, 99-100

  masculine principles vs. feminine values in, 220, 288

  Churchill, Sir Winston, 94

  Ciardi, John, 154n, 160–161,163

  circle, as Apollonian symbol, 218

  cities, loyalty to, 46-47

  Clark, Kenneth, 250

  classical myths, Christian attack on, 24-25

  see also Creek myths; specific myths

  Classic Tradition, The (Highet), 39n

  Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 18

  Cody, William F. (Buffalo Bill), 95, 129n

  collective guilt, 84, 264–265, 266

  collective unconscious, 38, 171

  Columbus, Christopher, 91, 92, 300

  commercialism, 106,126,140–142, 242

  commitment, 181-182

  community:

  church as symbol of, 51

  developmental needs for, 52–53

  earth as, 299-302

  female symbols of, 164-165

  heroism and, 53–54

  loyalty to, 45-47

  mythic sense of, 30–31

  search for, 47-49

  space exploration and, 298–299

  symbols of, 50–51

  compassion, 52,134

  competitiveness:

  American individualism and, 115

  of Faustianism, 218

  reaction-formation and, 98

  of students, 56

  concentration camps, 271

  Concourt, Edmund, 140

  confession, 151, 155

  confirmation rituals, 39

  consciousness:

  biblical depiction of, 27

  myth vs., 37

  pride and, 232

  of Sisyphus, 144-147

  unconscious complemented by, 224-225

  contraceptives, 195

  Coolidge, Calvin, 119,126

  Cooper, James Fenimore, 108-109

  Copernicus, Nicolaus, 91, 220, 224

  Coughlin, Father Charles E., 126

  courage:

  heroic examples of, 55

  of relationship, 205

  Courage To Be, The (Tillich), 33

  cowboys, 97-98, 142

  creation, mystery of, 31, 298

  creative waiting, 205, 207, 208–210, 287-288

  creativity:

  from devil, 261-263, 273-275, 282-284

  Eros-Thanatos conflict and, 76, 77

  exile and, 52

  memory and, 68n, 70–71

  negation vs., 274, 275

  as painful struggle, 275-277

  schizophrenia and, 18, 20

  see also art

  Creon, 8o, 81, 82–84

  Cuéism, 103

  cults, 22-24, 48,101,122,126, 274

  cultural decline, 259, 26–262

  Culture of Narcissism, The (Lasch), 112

  cultures, Apollonian vs. Faustian, 218-219

  Cupid, 77

  Cusanos, Nicolaus, 220

  Custer, George Armstrong, 95

  cynicism, 56, 186

  Da Free John, 22n

  daimonic:

  artist’s struggle with, 282-283

  in Briar Rose, 205

  Nietzschean sense of, 190

  “shadow” concept vs., 27

  “Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus, The,” 221, 265

  Damn Yankees, 218

  Dante Alighieri:

  Beatrice figure and, 164

  exile of, 52

  death addressed by, 39

  hell described by, 18n

  literary sources used by, 155

  on memory, 70

  mid-life reference of, 154

  see also Divine Comedy, The

  death:

  fear of, 105, 294

  imminence of, 187-188

  love vs., 76-77, 294

  mortality and, 293-297

  myths connected to, 39, 217, 219

  voodoo, 51n

  Death of a Salesman (Miller), 42-44, 117,137,141

  Death of Cod (Nietzsche), 259

  Deborah (case history), 17–21, 46, 51, 98

  Declaration of Independence, 236, 254

  Decline of the West, The (Spengler), 217, 218, 260

  depression:

  in America, 113, 120-123

  modern escapes from, 238n

  mythlessness and, 21

  desert, 94-95

  despair, 133,185–186, 190

  development, feminine, 196–199, 200, 201, 203, 206, 207, 212

  devil:

  contemporary belief in, 21, 270, 272

  as creative source, 261–263, 273–275, 282-284

  cults of, 274

  Enlightenment absence of, 283

  God opposed by, 274, 275-277, 284

  see also Lucifer, Mephistopheles; Satan

  Devil and Daniel Webster, The (Benét), 218

  Dillinger, John, 100

  discovery, age of, 91-93, 288

  Discovery of Being, The (May), 203

  disease, creativity derived from, 262-263

  Divine Comedy, The (Dante), 153-167

  Beatrice in, 159, 163, 164, 193, 220, 230, 253

  Faust legend vs., 219–220, 229–230, 253

  Inferno in, 39, 154–155,156, 160-–62

  opening line of, 154

  Paradiso in, 162, 164

  Prologue of, 154–15;

  psychotherapeutic process vs., 153, 155–164, 165, 167, 193

  Purgatorio in, 162,164, 273

  sexual love in, 1;;, 164-16;, 229-230

  Virgil’s role in, 153, 156–160, 162, 163-164, 273

  writing of, 52

  divinity:

  magical knowledge vs., 224

  rejection of, 222-223

  Doctor Faustus (Mann), 218, 256-266

  on Germany, 256, 264–265

  Helen of Troy in, 244

  Nietzsche and, 258, 259, 260

  psychotherapeutic process and, 267

  Satan in, 259-263, 267

  Doll’s House, A (Ibsen), 289

  Don Giovanni (Mozart), 218

  Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 273

  “Dover Beach” (Arnold), 152-153, 154

  Dowie, Mark, 103n

  Dow-Jones average, 119

  drama, trivialization of, 43, 261

  dreams, 38, 61, 251

  Dresden, bombing of, 257, 265

  drugs, 23,123, 238n

  Dubos, René, 218

  Earhart, Amelia, 55

  earth, community of, 299–302

  earth mother, 291

  Easter, 24-25, 50, 166, 236, 255

  Eastwood, Clint, 94, 100

  Echo,110–111

  education, ethics and, 21, 22, 28-29

  egocentricity, 69, 177, 190

  Einstein, Albert, 11, 25,75–76, 287

  Eliot, George, 58-59

  Eliot, T. S., 70,138n, 162, 208-210

  Elmer Gantry (Lewis), 27

  empathy, 157

  encounter groups, 101

  Enlightenment:

  Goethe influenced by, 234, 235, 236

  industrial progress and, 235, 254

  no devil in, 283

  rationalistic goals of, 22

  envy, 34n, 185–186, 202, 211–212

  Erhard, Werner, 103-104

  Ericson, Leif, 91

  Erikson, Erik, 33, 289

  eros, aggression and, 283

  Eros, myth of, 39, 76–77,134

  EST, 103

  E.T., 18

  eternity:

  mortality and, 297

  mythic character of, 50

  ethics:

  education in, 21, 22, 28-29

  heroic role models and, 54

  modem ignorance of, 21–22

  see also morality

  Europe:

  churches of, 51

  historical sense in, 99-100

  Eve, 27, 42

  evil:

  cathartic struggle with, 282-284

  good in conflict with, 274, 282-283, 284<
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  goodness born of, 34, 235, 236, 255, 261

  national, 264–265, 266

  power of, 279

  worship of, 274

  evolution, frog’s place in, 200–201

  exile, 51-52,81

  existential crises, 38–40,43

  fairy tales, myths vs., 196

  see also Briar Rose

  Fallaci, Oriana, 97-98

  “fantasy,” “phantasy” vs., 65n

  Farrell, Joan, 60

  fatalism, 120, 270

  fathers, overprotectiveness of, 202, 203

  Faust (Goethe), 234-255

  creative impulse manifested in, 76, 247-250

  cruelty in, 226, 239, 247, 249

  female power in, 164, 242-243, 245-246, 247, 253-255, 287

  Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus vs., 219 226, 254

  Mephistopheles in, 34, 235, 236, 237–243, 245-246, 248, 249–252, 254, 255, 272–273,280

  Part One, 236-241

  Part Two, 241-255

  patriarchal power depicted in, 239, 250

  prologue to, 34

  psychotherapeutic models found in, 237-238, 240, 243, 245, 267

  salvation in, 219, 241, 247, 251-255

  sexual equality and, 288

  sexual love in, 239-240, 242, 244, 247-248, 252

  theme of progress in, 247, 250, 254, 255

  writing of, 217, 234, 241, 253, 283

  Faust, myth of:

  Divine Comedy vs., 219–220, 229-230, 253

  literary versions of, 217–218

  nuclear arms and, 218–219

  origins of, 220-222

  Renaissance thought and, 219–221

  see also Doctor Faustus; Faust; Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

  Faustianism:

  cultural, 218-219, 269

  psychotherapy and, 266-269

  Faustus, John, 221

  Feder, Lillian, 28n, 76, 77n, 106n

  femininity, development of, 196–199, 201, 203, 206, 212

  Ferenczi, Sandor, 73

  films, 18, 26–27, 97

  Fink, Mike, 95 Fitzgerald, F. Scott:

  alcoholism of, 128, 134, 137

  background of, 127–128, 139

  loneliness of, 137

  self-pity of, 139

  see also Great Gatsby, The

  Fitzgerald, Robert, 83n, 105n, 296n

  Flies, The (Sartre), 40-41

  Fliess, Wilhelm, 72, 75

  Flying Dutchman, 49

  Ford, Henry, 103

  forgiveness, divine element of, 254-255

  form, beauty as, 228n, 242n, 244

  Fortuna, 118, 119

  49ers,46,51

  Four Quartets (Eliot), 162

  France, German occupation of, 40, 41

  Franklin, Benjamin, 110

  Freedman, James O., 57n

  freedom:

  individualism and, 123

  myth of, 95

  responsibility incurred with, 291

  Freischutz (Weber), 258

  Freud, Sigmund, 72–77, 251

  Adler vs., 69

  on aggression, 283

  childhood memories assessed by, 65, 74-75

  colleagues’ differences with, 69, 289

  contemporaries of, 170

  cultural importance of, 74

  on dreams, 168n, 188n

  Eros myth and, 134, 283

  evolutionary theory and, 201n

  favorite authors of, 153

 

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