Freud's suggestion that the human mind has an unconscious part has had an immense effect on our intellectual and cultural history. Once developed and substantiated, this assumption added a psychoanalytical perspective that yielded new interpretations of myth. Freud’s description of the interaction between the conscious and the unconscious mind, particularly the effect of this interaction on the process of symbolization, underlies all the modern psychoanalytic approaches to myth. In the course, we will discuss the work of Freud's immediate followers, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham and Karl Gustav Jung. Psychoanalytic thought has since continued to evolve and expand, and we will also be introduced to the work of several later researchers, who have made highly creative theoretical contributions that constitute certain paradigm shifts.

The psychoanalytic approaches to myth will be illustrated through selected myths. We will analyze their representations in ancient literature and in modern adaptations.