As explored throughout this blog, in my own training and research as a cultural mythologist in the field of depth psychology and in experiences as a systems analyst/consultant for at-risk individuals and families, how we view our lives is best understood in the way we tell stories about them. Religious, political, scientific, medical, mental health, and legal systems are where so many myths dwell. The stories of who we are are both embedded in and continuously injected into these institutions and how they define us. Oliver Sacks provides his own insight into the process of myth-making that I do not fully agree with because he views myths mostly through fundamentalism, but I appreciate because he grapples with the question:

In a previous post, I stated the shift in course of my own life when I decided to move beyond the diagnostic confines of clinical psychology to take a deeper and simultaneously intimate and broader view of the human condition and our world that was freed from only pathological aims. I wanted the imagination and soul to be let back in, combined with cognitive theories and approaches, to help guide me through the corridors of the mind. The way through for me has become how what we are thinking, perceiving, believing, feeling and imagining is being projected onto our place and time behaviorally, knowing that yes there are so many stories going on within how we act out the drama of our lifetimes.

Religion wants myths out of its literal interpretations of scared texts, science wants them out of its labs, mental health wants them out of the consulting rooms and diagnostic categories, politics wants them out of constitutional authority, and the law wants them out the courtroom, but human beings are involved so there is always the presence of myth-making. You cannot help but see myths at work in the way we put so much belief into our pain and suffering. The myths come in as a way of organizing our wounds and giving them a narrative to take refuge in when nothing else makes sense. For right and/or for wrong this is always happening.

The mystery that surrounds us feeds the myths we make. We cannot hold onto the not knowing or not understanding for too long, so we have to make-up (make-believe) a reason for why and how life and its losses are happening. If we at least know this much, challenging when the myths are causing harm, cherishing them when they help ease our pain and suffering, then perhaps we can live a deeper, more honest, life that honors this mystery. As I continue to work with this approach in my own life and helping others I am amazed how much tension the mind and body can hold when confronting mystery if the myths are allowed into do some of the work for us. Given time, the truth(s) of what we are going through will eventually emerge, but while this process is unfolding the stories we tell about ourselves, others and the world can guides us.