The Hero as a Dominant Mythical Motif in Western Culture and Its Relevance Nowadays: The Postulates of Jung and His Followers

Abstract

The paper presents Jung’s postulates about the imaginative psyche and the hero myth, which is interpreted as a manifestation of the archetypical psyche. According to the psychologist, the figure of the hero is one of the most significant mythical images, which has an influence on the human psyche. Jung wrote about many different variants of the hero myth in every major culture. This issue inspired, among others, such thinkers as J. Hillman. He wrote about the presence of myths in culture, society, religion, and their effect on the human psyche. He created his own intellectual positions, but they were based on Jung’s theory of archetypes. Jerzy Grotowski, a theater director and theater anthropologist, was also interested in these problems. He attempted to verify the relevance of the myth of Christianity in the second half of the 20th century and the figure of Christ as hero. The aim of this paper is to indicate common features of the hero figure as described by Jung and the thinkers inspired by his psychological conception. Furthermore, I present how these thinkers transgress Jung’s conclusions concerning the hero myth. In the conclusion, I address the issue of the possibility of the hero myth’s influence on modern society and the individual human psyche.