Mythotherapy is a therapeutic method based on psychology, mythology, Cognitive Sciences, CBT, anthropology, philosophy.
Contents
Etymology and definitions
Mythotherapy is combined from two parts: the first part is mytho- which is the equivalent for the word "myth" which itself is from French "mythe" (1818) and originally from "mythus" in Modern Latin and its older form was the Greek "mythos" which means: speech, thought, story, myth, anything delivered by word of mouth. So in Mythotherapy, myth has a very vast meaning and refers to, primarily, mythological texts and secondly, sacred texts. What is important in mythotherapy is the fundamental realms of human soul and spirit which contains archetypes and a very huge unconscious knowledge and wisdom. The second part, the suffix -logy comes from -logia (λογία) in Greek which means "study of" or "research". Mythotherapy is an interdisciplinary therapeutic method which uses myths and sacred texts and mythological findings for therapy; and at the same time uses psychology, cognitive sciences, cognitive behavior therapy, anthropology, philosophy and ancient knowledge and wisdom for therapeutic intentions. Mythotherapy is also a method for knowing the Self and self-actualization
History
In ancient cultures using myths and sacred texts as a therapeutic tool was known and applied. Also they used myths and sacred texts for teaching a child how to enter the adult world, especially during the initiation. In initiation, myths have a really important role to give the person the teachings a man needs for knowing the world, its mechanisms, human, and the Self and how to act in the world. In the ancient world they used myths to heal disease. In ancient Egypt, for example, to cure an illness a physician who was at the same time a votary would start to narrate a special myth or a narration from a sacred text. This action would heal the person even in physical cases. In modern psychology it was Carl Gustav Jung that for the first time noted this domain in a very vast, deep and practical way. In 1980 decade it was Jean Shinoda Bolen, the Jungian psychiatrist, who used myths as a way to discover the inner soul of men and women and a way to reach the unconscious of human.