Humans are storytellers. Every culture across the world and across time has done it. From the earliest cave paintings to the narrative that emerges about why our boss spoke the way that she did in Tuesday’s meeting. At every level, from the stories that we hold in our bodies to the overarching “story-of-my-life” type narratives that we create over years often becoming transparent to us, forming the lens through which we view ourselves, our relationships, and our lives. We use story to explain the world, ourselves, and life itself. That is what myth is at its heart.

Myths are not simply false stories, generally of a religious nature, from other cultures long ago. They are present in every place and time that humans are present and they are integral to the human experience. Myths are the stories that we use to give us a sense of who we are in the world, both individually and collectively as a culture. They tell us what life is all about and what’s important. And, in our present moment, they should inform the way that we think not just about our present social dynamics, but individual mental and relationship health as well.

Myth and Culture

In every place that humans are, we have formed, both consciously and unconsciously, cultures: systems of shared values, beliefs, norms, language, and symbols. And in every place that we have culture, we use stories to help us organize those symbols, values, and beliefs. Myth is, in one sense, the organization of culture. Rollo May, existential psychologist laid out four primary functions of myth, three of which have to do with culture.

Community: Myth helps us to organize our sense of collective identity and develop boundaries around who is in that community and who is not. Nietzsche once wrote that the cry for myth is a cry for community, for a “mythic home”. The stories of who I am and why the world is the way that it is, are meant to also tell me where home is, and who home is.

Communicating values : Myth transmits those ideals which give us ,collectively and individually, a sense of purpose and meaning. They are the stories that tell us what is important and what makes life worth living.

Dealing with mystery: Myth helps us deal with being human and gives us a framework through which to understand and communicate life’s great mysteries and

Myth and the Self

Myth also helps form our sense of who we are in the world as individuals. How could it not? If myth is the story that explains the mysteries of the cosmos, tells us where and who home is, and reveals the values of that home, I immediately begin to see a certain shape emerge as I view myself through its lens. As beings who are storytellers across the lifespan, myth gives us a larger story to situate the stories of our lives within.

One way that this connects with our individual lived experience is through giving us a screen onto which to project our experiences and let that screen tell us then, how to interpret them. Do I see myself as a hero when I struggle? A martyr? Have the gods punished me in some way or am I karmically punishing myself?

Another is that myth connects to our lived experience by telling us what to do with the various facets of ourselves. The stories that inform which things are valuable to a culture and who is on the inside or outside of that culture, tell me a great deal about who I must show up as in order to belong. For creatures designed for community and relationships, there is little that could possibly be more important than belonging. As such, the stories my culture tells also inform my individual sense of how I need to show up in order to be accepted.

Our Current Moment

Myth is as innate to humans as play is to children. No one need tell them how to do it, it happens all on its own. They do not need instruction or specific types of toys. Basic non-directive play will happen wherever children are without any assistance. Humans, in general, are the same with myth. It happens all on its own. Our storytelling nature weaves its way into how we form groups, understand the human experience, and make sense of life’s many mysteries. It is a framework that, once we see, can help us a great deal in how we show up in this cultural moment.

To say that we live in a turbulent cultural moment in America would be a gross understatement. We are very polarized, living in an era of violence and power struggles, and the Doomsday Clock (an indicator of how close humanity is to widespread manmade destruction) is closer to midnight than it has ever been. There are many layers of reasons for this and it is not my intention to reduce a complex issue down to a single facet. I do however, think that understanding myth (and its collapse) can help us add a layer of understanding to how we approach the subject.

When Myth Falls Apart

Myth shows up in a number of ways in American culture. From a shared civil religious framework, to narratives about gender and race. The collective story that we hold about who we are as a nation in the world, or our sense of what the rest of the world is like. Even the shared social markers that indicate our passage through life such as marriage, children, and career are part of our shared American mythology. And many of those myths are coming undone.

In an era where the paradigms and collective stories that once explained our world and signaled our values are quickly unraveling, a kind of social groundlessness emerges. We become aware at some level that social shifts and changes mean a restructuring of that which delineates one group from another. They mean that the stories that have explained us to ourselves as well as the mysteries of life itself, have gone the way of the Titans.

In Part II we’ll look at how these social changes and the collapse of myth show up in our individual lived experience, as well as the therapy room. One thing that may help us see the times in which we live with a different level of clarity, is noticing which larger narratives are collapsing around us. Myth is organic to the human experience, and when our mythology changes, so must we.