Greek mythology is woven into the very language of modern psychology. The names of psychological concepts, the cases studies of patients, and the theories of the mind all draw on Greek myth. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, used Greek tragedy as a primary source for his theory of the unconscious. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, developed the concept of archetypes, universal symbolic figures that recur in human myth and dream. The vocabulary of clinical psychology, from the “Oedipus complex” to the “narcissistic personality disorder,” is rooted in the Greek imagination.
Greek mythology is the source of much of the modern vocabulary of psychology, particularly the psychoanalytic vocabulary developed by Freud, Jung, and the later clinical traditions. The standard scholarly reference is the Cambridge Companion to Jung (1997, second edition 2015). The Oedipus complex, the Electra complex, the Narcissus complex, the Phaedra complex, the Jocasta complex: all are named for Greek mythological figures, and the Cambridge Companion has a detailed treatment of Jung’s reading of the Greek archetypes.
Sigmund Freud and the Oedipus Complex
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was deeply influenced by Greek myth, particularly by Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. In his 1899 book The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud argued that the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles expressed the universal unconscious desire of a child for the parent of the opposite sex and the rivalry with the parent of the same sex. He called this the “Oedipus complex.”
The Oedipus complex, in Freud’s view, was a universal stage of child development, in which the boy unconsciously desired his mother and wished to replace his father. The myth of Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, was, for Freud, the most powerful expression of this universal desire. The success of the play, Freud argued, was due to its ability to evoke this unconscious wish in the audience.
The Oedipus complex has been a central concept in psychoanalysis, and it has influenced fields as diverse as literary criticism, gender studies, and political theory. The concept has also been criticized, particularly by feminist scholars, who have argued that the Oedipus complex reflects Freud’s own assumptions about gender and family rather than universal human experience.
Carl Jung and the Archetypes
Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, was also deeply influenced by Greek myth, although he approached it differently than Freud. Jung argued that the Greek myths expressed universal archetypes, symbolic figures that recur in human myth and dream across all cultures.
The major Jungian archetypes derived from Greek myth include:
- The Hero: The Greek hero cycle, from Heracles to Achilles to Odysseus, expresses the universal archetype of the hero who goes on a quest, faces trials, and returns transformed.
- The Wise Old Man: The centaur Chiron, the wisest and most just of the centaurs, who taught many of the great Greek heroes, is the archetype of the wise teacher.
- The Great Mother: The goddess Demeter, the mother of Persephone, is the archetype of the great mother, the nurturing and protective figure who also can be terrible in her grief.
- The Divine Child: The young god Dionysus, born from the thigh of Zeus, the twice-born, is the archetype of the divine child, the figure who is both vulnerable and divine.
- The Trickster: The god Hermes, the messenger and the thief, is the archetype of the trickster, the clever and cunning figure who lives by his wits.
- The Anima and Animus: The Greek god Aphrodite is an expression of the anima, the feminine aspect of the male psyche, while Athena is an expression of the animus, the masculine aspect of the female psyche.
Jung argued that these archetypes were not just literary figures but were symbols of deep, universal patterns in the human psyche. The Greek myths, for Jung, were not just ancient stories but living expressions of the structure of the unconscious.
The Muses and Creativity
The Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts in Greek myth, have inspired countless writers, artists, and thinkers. They were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), and they presided over the various arts: epic poetry (Calliope), history (Clio), music and lyric poetry (Euterpe), tragedy (Melpomene), sacred poetry (Polyhymnia), dance (Terpsichore), comedy (Thalia), astronomy (Urania), and eloquence (Erato).
The Muses were said to inspire all who worked in their fields. The phrase “calling on the Muses” was a standard invocation of the poets, and the Musagetes, the leader of the Muses, was Apollo, the god of music, poetry, and prophecy. The Muses were also said to be the patrons of memory, and the word “museum” (originally a place of the Muses) derives from their name.
In modern psychology, the concept of “flow,” the state of being fully immersed in an activity, was developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a positive psychologist, in the 1990s. The state of flow, in which the practitioner loses self-consciousness and time, is in many ways a modern version of the ancient idea of being “possessed” by the Muses.
Greek Myth and the Unconscious
The Greek myths have been used in psychotherapy as a way of exploring the unconscious. The technique of “mythotherapy,” developed by physicians such as F. David Peat, uses Greek myth as a framework for understanding the client’s psychological state. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, for example, is often used to explore themes of loss and the difficulty of letting go. The myth of Prometheus is used to explore the price of knowledge and the relationship between authority and creativity. The myth of Medea is used to explore the psychology of betrayal and revenge.
The archetypes of the Greek myths are also used in depth psychology, a school of psychotherapy founded by Ira Progoff in the 1960s. Depth psychology uses the methods of Jung, particularly the concept of archetypes, to help clients explore the deeper layers of their psyche. The “intensive journal method” of Progoff draws on the Greek myth tradition, particularly on the writing of the myths as a way of accessing the unconscious.
Greek Myth and the Cognitive Sciences
The Greek myths have also been influential in the cognitive sciences, particularly in the study of narrative, metaphor, and meaning. The cognitive scientist Merlin Donald has argued that the Greek myths, particularly the works of Homer, were the first major examples of “external symbolic storage” in human history, the use of language to store and transmit cultural knowledge across generations. The myths, in Donald’s view, were the first libraries, the first encyclopedias, the first universities.
The mythologist Joseph Campbell, building on the work of the psychoanalyst Otto Rank, developed the concept of the “monomyth” or “hero’s journey,” a universal pattern of narrative that can be found in myths and stories from all cultures. Campbell’s concept, which drew heavily on the Greek hero cycle, has been hugely influential in film, literature, and creative writing. The “hero’s journey” framework, with its stages of call to adventure, threshold crossing, trials, apotheosis, and return, is now a standard tool in screenwriting and storytelling.
The Psychology of Specific Myths
Several specific Greek myths have been used as psychological case studies.
The myth of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection and was turned into a flower, has been used to describe a wide range of self-absorbed and self-regarding behaviors. The “narcissistic personality disorder” is named for the myth, and “narcissism” has become a standard psychological term.
The myth of Oedipus has been used as a paradigmatic case of the “family romance,” the unconscious desires and rivalries that structure family life. The “Oedipus complex” is the most famous of Freud’s concepts, and it has been a central concept in psychoanalysis.
The myth of Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon who conspired with her brother Orestes to murder their mother Clytemnestra, has been used to describe the female counterpart of the Oedipus complex, the unconscious sexual desire of a daughter for her father and the rivalry with her mother.
The myth of Phobos, the god of fear and the son of Ares and Aphrodite, is the source of the word “phobia,” used in clinical psychology to describe an excessive and irrational fear. Specific phobias are often named for Greek myth: arachnophobia (fear of spiders, from Arachne), agoraphobia (fear of open spaces, from the Greek agora), and many others.
The myth of Sisyphus, the king of Corinth who was condemned to roll a stone up a hill for eternity, has been used by Albert Camus in his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus to illustrate the absurdity of human existence. Camus argued that the recognition of the absurdity of life, far from leading to despair, could lead to a kind of freedom, the freedom to embrace life in spite of its meaninglessness.
The Therapeutic Use of Myth
The Greek myths are widely used in psychotherapy today. The technique of “narrative therapy,” developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980s, uses stories as a way of understanding and re-authoring a client’s life. The Greek myths, with their rich and complex narratives, are a particularly useful source of stories for this purpose.
The myth of Ariadne, who gave Theseus the thread to escape the Labyrinth, is often used in therapy to explore themes of abandonment and the value of giving help. The myth of Persephone, who must spend part of each year in the underworld, is often used to explore themes of depression, loss, and renewal.
A Note on Reading This Profile
A note on reading this profile. The vocabulary of psychology is a special case of the modern reception of Greek myth, and the standard scholarly reference is the Cambridge Companion to Jung (1997, second edition 2015). The reader who wants the Freudian reading should consult Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (1900), which is the source of the Oedipus complex. The reader who wants the Jungian reading should consult Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1959), which is the source of the standard archetypal readings. The reader who wants the current state of the debate should consult the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the Oedipus complex.
For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture, and our profiles of Oedipus, Narcissus, Prometheus, and Medea.