The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Interpretation of Mythology (Forgotten Books) - Softcover

Rank, Otto

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605067679 ISBN 13: 9781605067674

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2008

Synopsis

Book Description:

"Otto Rank, (b. 1884, d. 1939), was a brilliant Austrian psychologist who was part of Sigmund Freud's inner circle. This early monograph by Rank is a groundbreaking application of the psychoanalytic method to comparative mythology. At the turn of the 20th century psychologists were beginning to attempt to unravel the mysteries of the human psyche, particularly through the medium of classical mythology. This would later lead to the insights of Jung, Joseph Campbell and others. But one of the first scholars who explored this convergence was Otto Rank.

One of the most vexing questions of comparative mythology, which will be more than obvious to even casual readers of this site, are the cross-cultural similarities in myths, folklore and legends. For instance, the flood myth, the heroic quest, and particularly birth-tales of the hero, appear around the world, from Africa to South America. When this was written the study of mythology was emerging from a period where attempts to explain this by diffusion or astronomical phenomena had been exhausted. Rank instead attempted to explain these common motifs in terms of what he believed to be psychological universals.

In this study Rank looks at a a wide variety of Eurasian hero birth narratives, including Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian, Indian, and Germanic legendary figures. He uses the methodology and vocabulary of classic Freudian psychoanalysis to do so. The middle part of this book, where Rank enumerates some of these tales, will be the most useful for modern readers, as he draws on a wide range of sources, some of them fairly obscure. In the last part he puts these myths 'on the couch' as it were, and ties up his thesis very coherently.

In later years, Rank broke with Freud, who had been somewhat of a father figure to him, ironically fulfilling half of the Oedipus complex about which they parted ways. He moved to Paris in 1926 where he took clients such as Henry Miller and Anais Nin, who mentions Rank often in her memoirs." (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

Table of Contents:

Publisher's Preface; Introduction; The Circle Of Myths; Sargon; Moses; Karna; Oedipus; Paris; Telephus; Perseus; Gilgamesh; Cyrus; Tristan; Romulus; Hercules ; Jesus; Siegfried; Lohengrin; The Interpretation Of The Myths; Endnotes

About the Publisher:

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:

"Otto Rank (April 22, 1884 - October 31, 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst. Born in Vienna as Otto Rosenfeld, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for twenty years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's publishing house and a creative theorist. In 1925, after Freud accused Rank of "anti-Oedipal" heresy, he chose to leave the inner circle and move away from Vienna with his wife, Tola, and infant daughter, Helene. For the remaining fifteen years of his life, Rank had an exceptionally successful career as a lecturer, writer and therapist in France and the U.S." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Review

"Nearly all prominent civilized nations, including Babylonians and Egyptians, Hebrews and Indians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, as well as Germanic peoples and others, have left us literatures in which, early on, they glorify national heroes--mythical princes and kings, and founders of religions, dynasties, empires, and cities--in many poetic tales and legends. The history of the birth and youth of these supermen came to be especially invested with fantastic features, which in different nations, though widely separated by space and entirely independent of each other, present a baffling similarity or, in part, a literal correspondence...The ultimate problem is not whence and how the material reached a certain people. That question is, Where did it come from to begin with?"

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1605067679
• ISBN 13: 9781605067674
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 132