The Effect of Narratives, Myths, and Folktales on Modern Cultural Practices - Essay Example

Introduction Storytellers have always cared for a ‘good tale’ since civilization period. These stories are usually mesmerizing and at the same time provoking. These stories are categorized into legends, folktales, and myths. Legend is a semi-true story passed from one person to another and carries with it a unique meaning. Folk tales are stories whose author is unknown and are commonly passed from one generation to another. Lastly, myths are tales based on supernatural beings and have a particular symbolism in various communities. This paper seek to explain the influence of narrative and folk stories on the modern day culture while outlining the theoretical and practical importance of narratives in dynamic psychotherapy. Narratives are a reflection of the daily activities of humanity, which makes them effective at communication messages relating to social problems and their possible solutions. In the recent year, the therapy nature of these tales has been highly regarded and is now a standard practice. Narrative therapy seeks to understand people’s identity, their challenges and the direct impact on their life. The technique separates a person from his or her challenges in life and instead assumes the person to be skillful, competent and having the ability to terminate his or her problems. Narrative therapy has undergone great dynamicity from the traditional storytelling for social fun to modern cultural practice as a healing technique. Psychology, the study of folklore and mythology Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are the first folklorist and mythologist. Their ideas are of significant application in the twentieth century, and their theories have made it easier to interpret the mythology. The two came up with words such as ‘ego’ and archetypes that are commonly in modern day language (Baring and Cashford, 1991, p. 167). Freud’s whole idea of coming up with his theories was motivated by the desire to understand his clients who were Viennese and lived in a place where emotion was highly subdued. He was brought up in an environment that promoted self-belief and self-importance. Freud believed that in his self-developed theory he could successfully describe the mental nature of his clients who were mainly wealthy middle European Jews through psychoanalysis (Freud et al., 2001). This idea gained fame more than contemporary psychology and psychiatry. Edward Bernays played a crucial role in his popularity by advocating English translation for his book. Freud’s writing has been termed as myth-making since he used classical tales to come up with metaphors. Freud’ many self-developed myths are now widely applied in western culture and are influencing peoples’ way of thinking. Freud exhibited interest in classical myths and termed it evidence for collective trait for human nature of thought. Freud’s enthusiasm for his ideas is a clear indication that his theories are of importance in trying to understand the lore and myths. The complexity of the interplay of artefact and symbolic protagonists has boosted the use of fairy tales and similar genres narratives as a technique to explore the inner functioning of the mind for those interested. This is the basis of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis (Freud et al., 2001). The American folklorists have done exploration on the psychological context of the lore by drawing from the previous works of Freud and Jung. Bruno Bettelheim, who was among the primary investigators, expressed in his works, ‘the uses of enchantment,’ that tales are interpreted as symbols of conflicts and sexual desire (Bettelheim, 1976). Bruno insisted on the fact that the scheme of the stories’ setting is in relation to the dynamics of life. Although his theory was highly criticized by many other subsequent writers, it has remained influential to both the folklorist and the psychotherapists. Alan Dundes, who was the chief criticizer of both the Freudian and Bruno theory, emphasized that folklores are interpreted by combining several approaches and not only the Freudian approach. Freud’s use of myths was an attempt to explain the mode of human thinking as being universal. He also discussed the effect of tales in understanding conflict and sexual anxiety in Oedipus myth was just but an imagination. Freud was a novelist who was brought up in an age when character had emotional depth. Therefore, he understood a human being as being psychologically structured what he likened to the dramatic character of Oedipus. Rene Girard and Jacques Lacan use his works in their preliminaries in order to come up with a more refined form of psychoanalysis (Boas, 1962, p.201). They developed a more linguistic form that paid more attention to unlocking and comprehension of the myths’ effect on modern culture patterns. Post Freudians, the likes of Julia Kristeva, Lacan and Girard have played a great role in developing the ‘children of their time’ theory of Freudian ideology and ended up as murky waters of Freud’s ideas. E.R Dodd is a pioneer in the exploration of the ultimate sources of myths. He used the post-Freudian thought to come up with classical mythology. Carl Jung is another significant contributor to the field of narratives and their possible application in the practical life of a human being. He used the hermeneutics in interpretation of the dreams and myths. He was more concerned in myths just like Freud but mainly for the sole reason of understanding the mode of thinking of human beings particularly the desire for its consecrated meaning. The approaches of these two psychologists to understanding myths are distinct. Jung’s approach is much broader compared to that of Freud because Jung came up with a more inclusive approach to consciousness to mythology (Campbell and Moyers, 1988). Also, his emphasis lies more on images than on words. Jung’s argument in replacing metaphors that are used by commonsense with a system of immensely more intricate metaphors is quite seductive and a source of inspiration. A good instance in his argument is when he defines spirits and archetypes of the collective insensible. The spirits and archetypes are a symbolism model that altogether comprises the unconscious mind. It is exhibited as a model that appears mystically and independent of the conscious mind (Jung et al., 1973). Jung’s archetypes are acceptable and are integrals to the culture concept. Typically speaking, Jung’s contribution to the study of folklore and mythology are more comprehensive in comparison to Freud’s. In the 1970s, Jung’s assistant published his works on the approach to exploration of fairy tales and Carlo Drake and Katherine Briggs made publications with the psychologists approach to folktales. However, taking a broad view of the works of Jung, you will find out that he did not do enough on myths to impact on psychiatry. Laurence Coupe’s analysis on Jung’s contribution to explaining myths did not find any substantive strongholds. He therefore concluded that he was an allegorist who aimed at ‘stasis’ instead of ‘dynamism’ (Doniger, 2011). Of the writers Jung inspired, John Campbell stands out for he has amassed great popularity in the western culture particularly in America. He borrows a lot from Jung but, unfortunately, does not use the facts to precision. Campbell made a notion that a hero is raised by a piece from several myths and legends. However, his ideas have been consistently questioned by mythologists and folklorists. Campbell assumes that the hero characters in myths and legends are animals that have been given human attributes. His description of a hero’s journey is expressed in the book, The Hero with a thousand Faces. Narrative influence to practical dynamic psychotherapy Myths have been known to give encouragement and a source of guidance when we are suffering and struggling to overcome the adversities of life. These myths are usually diversified from horrific ones to those that give hope. In clinical applications, myths are used to study mythic stories for hope. The representation of those heroic characters in the narrative as being strong enough to withstand all the challenges is a morale boost and can be used as a healing technique to those in ordeals. The tales are educative and give advice on dealing with mid-life hard situations as well as life transitions (Ellwood, 1999). The heroic journey to success is a representation of initiatory adventure that resembles in all dimensions the initiatory process of psychotherapy. When a person experiences hard times and can hardly get a solution the next viable option is to seek help. The sagas expressed in these narratives act like road maps to aid the presently suffering persons deal with their anxiety of experience and fear of the unknown. These educative tales will also serve as the only source of conscious resource for they are records of people who have made it and left the records in the form of insight tales. The healing nature of stories is depicted when one has reached his or her worst and had no options but to seek help. Therapists have specific narratives that are meant to give these persons who are going through hardships a reason to hold on. When in hardship, it is normally possible that one loses hope. In the case where the patient seeks help it has the implication that they still have some hope in life, therefore, can easily adapt to the healing process if this little hope is boosted. Once they are introduced to the psychotherapy healing process, the therapist narrates stories that are of interest to the patients (Noel, 1986). In some cases, there is a chance that the story relates to the patient and the therapist mentions a line that the patient meditates on as his or her only hope. This acts as a long time reminder that if others have made it then he or she can also make it. In a study carried out to test narrative healing power approach based on the traditional tales, the participants who were distressed women decreased the level of anxiety in their preliminaries. As time went by, they portrayed signs of further improvement in form of self-acceptance, growth, life appreciation, and a perception of self-importance. This study is a concrete example of the educational, healing ability and problem-solving capability inspired by these stories. Positive group psychotherapy is one of the positively accepted and clinically endorsed interventions that have been proved to work in a manner that increases resilience, self-confidence and bring satisfaction in life (Lawrence and Jewett, 2002, p.185). Another aspect of boosting self-confidence in the patients is reading the fairy tales and making a discussion out of the stories. Discussion make the patients of psychotherapy share their views concerning the tales, pointing out their favorite stories giving them a chance to come up with theirs. This helps to relieve any possible tension and promote creativity, playfulness and increased cohesion to eliminate the feeling of loneliness. Active participation will ensure that the patients opens up and share their experiences. The process of sharing makes them realize everybody is faced with challenges all that one needs to do is devise a way to overcome them. The study showed that active participation was the most efficient mode of relieving anxiety. Creativity, flexibility, and self-awareness are essential to solving and overcoming the adversities of life (Zipes, 2002). These virtues can easily be introduced by folktales. Research study has shown that there is a high coherence between a child and the parents who have the core ability to remember their past experiences. The stories must not be historically correct but should have some lessons to learn to teach the listeners/readers. Likewise, these healing tales must not necessarily be positive; they need to show a high level of dedication, perseverance and motivation in their characters. Anybody recommended for narrative therapy has been pushed by hardship to far extents than he or she expects and has little if no hope left. Therefore, such people need to hear about people who suffered just as they did and later ended up successful. Hence, the choice of narrative is vital to the psychotherapy. The narrative healing addresses the issues of the patient while allowing caregivers to voice their experiences in similar hardships (Nelson, 1991). The effect of stories is most effectively exercised in medical settings to come up with the progressive results. From a study conducted in the US, two groups of medical students were separated. The first group was only allowed to study the course content and follow the hospital chart strictly. The second group also did explore the course while following the hospital chart but run it parallel with narrative discussion and sharing of experiences with their patients. According to the results, the group that ran the two programs concurrently had a significantly higher performance than that of the strict course work program. The patients of the group that performed narrative discussion recorded high recovery chances in comparison to the other group. The only explanation is that the second group created a perfect link with their patients, made them enjoy most of their moments from the enthusiasm of the narratives. As a result, their minds remained expectant of betterment each passing day. Human instinct and mind setting define one’s happiness and gives hope to life Conclusion Narrative stories, myths, and folktales are an enriched source of encouragement and hope. These reflect upon the life of those who have hard times and still manage to push through the difficult times. The contribution by psychologists such as Jung, Campbell, and Freud was a resourceful approach to the field of literature and other disciplines whose narrative effect is felt. The knowledge gathered from these folklorists and psychologists is critical to understanding human nature and thinking. Even though some are not real stories, the attributes expressed in their setting is of significance to the many readers that might be in need of encouragement. References Baring, A., & Cashford, J., 1991. The myth of the goddess: evolution of an image. London, England, Viking Arkana. Bettelheim, B., 1976. The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales. New York, Knopf. Boas, F., 1962. Anthropology and modern life. New York, W.W. Norton & Co. Campbell, J., & Moyers, B. D., 1988. The power of myth. New York, Doubleday. Doniger, W., 2011. The implied spider politics and theology in myth. New York, Columbia University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10430791. Ellwood, R. S., 1999. The politics of myth a study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. Albany, State University of New York Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=44611. Freud, S., Strachey, J., Freud, A., Strachey, A. and Tyson, A., 2001. The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. London: Vintage. Jung, C., Read, H., Stein, L. and Riviere, D., 1973. The collected works of C.G. Jung. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Lawrence, J. S., & Jewett, R. 2002. The myth of the American superhero. Grand Rapids, Mich, W.B. Eerdmans. Nelson, G. M., 1991. Here all dwell free: stories to heal the wounded feminine. New York, Doubleday. Noel, D., 1986. Approaching Earth: a search for the mythic significance of the space age. New York, Amity House. Zipes, J., 2002. Breaking the magic spell radical theories of folk and fairy tales. Lexington, University Press of Kentucky. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=792282. Read More