Hero's Journey
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..hero myth pattern studies were popularized by Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's view of myth. In his 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell described the basic narrative pattern as follows:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.[4]
The 17 stages may be organized in a number of ways, including division into three "acts" or sections:
Departure (also Separation), Initiation (sometimes subdivided into IIA. Descent and IIB. Initiation) and Return. In the departure part of the narrative, the hero or protagonist lives in the ordinary world and receives a call to go on an adventure. The hero is reluctant to follow the call, but is helped by a mentor figure.
The initiation section begins with the hero then traversing the threshold to the unknown or "special world", where he faces tasks or trials, either alone or with the assistance of helpers.
The hero eventually reaches "the innermost cave" or the central crisis of his adventure, where he must undergo "the ordeal" where he overcomes the main obstacle or enemy, undergoing "apotheosis" and gaining his reward (a treasure or "elixir").
The hero must then return to the ordinary world with his reward. He may be pursued by the guardians of the special world, or he may be reluctant to return, and may be rescued or forced to return by intervention from the outside.
In the return section, the hero again traverses the threshold between the worlds, returning to the ordinary world with the treasure or elixir he gained, which he may now use for the benefit of his fellow man. The hero himself is transformed by the adventure and gains wisdom or spiritual power over both worlds.
Hero's Journey can be viewed as a story structure that can guide the transformational process: internal integration of ego identities, personas and shadow parts into out authentic self. Current research into trauma-informed psychology suggests that some diagnoses for psychological symptoms may actually be deeply influenced by the experiences we've had through out our lives. Some types of experiences can cause trauma, such that the body's emotional regulation system becomes disorganized and dysfunctional. In fact, one could argue that the very nature of current lifestyles will result in negative cognitive biased experiential lenses. Modern neuroscience and psychological research have developed a variety of somatic and social-emotional types of therapy designed to help the maturation process toward learning habits for self-care and guidance to allow strengthening of social connections, do to reduction of tendency to operate in defensive or driven by deficiency needs.
This is what Jung referred to as individuation, where each being should be supported in becoming their most authentic and empowered self, learning that meaning is socially expressed, reflected, consolidated, integrated, and changes our experiential lenses for our future decision-making selves, allowing us to relax our defenses and to live in the moment, feeling supported to be creative, productive, collaborator.
