Alternative for the Hero's journey (since it is about Ego)
According to psychologist Carl Jung, there are divisions into one's mind. The "Self" (often described as "Higher-Self" or "Soul") is what hold all of those divisions together (or try to). It is what gives balance and stability of who you truly are or can be.
The hero archetype is the personification of the ego (I won't explain it here, it would be a huge explanation.). In Campbell's and Vogler's writings, there are mentions about the "Shadow" as well. It is portrayed as an antagonist to the hero, but not necessarily the villain.
This "ego-driven" journey is about proving something to the world. The Hero has something that is not well acepted in his society and he has to left in order to mature himself for then he can return renewed and stronger. They often want save the world aganist what he (or his society) considered to be evil, but there are other people on the other side that have their own heroes. So we got ourselves a bunch of blue and red heroes fighting aganist each other.
There isn't, a specific journey for the Self, which is the central part of the human's psyche. We tend to forget it in our polarized society as we need it more than ever.
What journeys and/or archetypes can be told as a journey/archetype for the "Self?"
I'm not talking about the "I'am" the "me" but the psycholical concept of the Self. If You are not familiar with it, here are some brief explanations:
If you want more information, the key-words are: Self, Soul (in psychology), Ego, Carl Jung
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/30417. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
Consider the Self the axiomatic being.
An axiom, in science, is something we take as self-evidently true. It is axiomatic that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line: It needs no formal proof, if you reflect upon it there is no way anything else could be shorter. It is axiomatic that in geometry a point has zero width or height (or depth): because if it had a width, more points could fit inside it of lesser width, and it wouldn't be a point!
Your axiomatic being consists of your beliefs about the world, yourself, and others that you cannot prove but accept as truth nonetheless, the givens of your personality.
I should think a journey of Self would consist of arriving at a NEW such truth, or changing such a truth, and therefore becoming a different person.
For an example, consider a person that changes from racist to non-racist, or religious to atheist, or capitalist to socialist, or in all those cases: Vice versa. That something challenged one of their axiomatic truths, provided a counter-example that truly mattered to them, and in the process changed who they are at a most fundamental level.
For example, most atheists come to their lack of faith by logic, but there are many other reasons for people to lose all faith in religion and embrace atheism: just imagine the tragedy of children raped by priests, or those kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. A fundamental belief in God's protection and benevolence is shattered, while atheists recognize there are sick and evil people in the world and that collective human action is the only way to minimize the misery and horror such people create.
A story of a person dealing with tragedy by moving from devout faith to agnosticism to full on atheism and perhaps even an outspoken enemy and prosecutor of the Church would therefore be a story of Self.
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It strikes me looking at this that what the difference between true self and false self here can be summed up as contentment vs discontent.
I would like to think that contentment was the true self and discontent a false self, but I think that is bollocks. Man is born to trouble and the sparks fly upward. Discontent is the natural state of man.
But, of course, discontent strives for contentment (which is another way of saying that appetite years for satiation). Stories are about the striving of discontent for contentment. Thus there is not one story arc for each, but rather the story arc runs from one to the other (or to lost hope and death). Comedy is discontent to contentment. Tragedy is discontent to death.
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