Cloud Busting

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The Mythological Unconscious by Michael Vannoy Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A collection of essays by a Freudian therapist who converted to Jungianism, exploring the use of mythology (mostly Greco-Roman) in therapy. I found these essays easy to read, despite their academic provenance, and synchronicitous with our current pop culture.

I know Jung gets a lot of flack - especially because of his interest in the esoteric - but Adams' essays made me rethink my views on him and of how there is a lot to be taken from his theories on the collective unconscious. The one thing that strikes me about Jung is how good he can be to artists - giving tools and ideas that lead into unique imagery and creative explorations. Also, Adams highlights over and over again how Jung found all cultures to be of equal value, and always pressed the importance of a therapist learning as much as possible about language, history and art.

Another interesting aspect of these essays are their explanation on how Jung's dream interpretations differ from Freud and Lacan. While Freud and Lacan see in dreams the meanings for "something else" (i.e. an umbrella is phallic, etc) Jung expands on dreams themes, finding in the general culture myths that fit the narrative and can be used to explain it. For Jung, a unicorn is a unicorn, and not a phallic symbol. The key is to discover what the unicorn meant in folklore and from there seek its interpretation. I like that.

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