We might ask, why explore the Hero’s Journey? Sure, Hollywood uses it as their dominant story structure for its films (more on that later), but what relevance does it have for us as individuals? Today, when we speak of “myth,” we refer to something that’s commonly believed, but untrue. Myth, for people like Campbell and Jung however, had a much deeper meaning. Myths, for them, represent dreams of the collective psyche. That is, in understanding the symbolic meaning of a myth, you come to know the psychological undercurrent—including hidden motivations, tensions, and desires—of the people.
And because the hero’s journey represents a monomyth that we can observe in most, if not all, cultures, it represents a process that is relevant to the entire human family.
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