ABSTRACT
Myth is a great collective dream, a creation unfolding meanings, which, like individual dreams—our private myths—can turn out to be a precious tool in the search for knowledge. In this chapter, the author talks about the words of some patient named Cassandra prompted thoughts on hypochondria, a rather enigmatic event. In myth, Cassandra is not always the disbelieved prophetess. There are various versions of how Cassandra receives the gift of prophecy. Apollo, wishing to gain her favours, teaches Cassandra to foretell the future; but once she has learned the art, she refuses to yield to him. The angered god seeks revenge, but he cannot take his gift away, because gifts of the gods are inalienable. The prophetesses are the voice of the god, and Cassandra represents the fracture between man and god, the source of his meaning, of his knowledge, of his purpose. The hypochondriac, like Cassandra, tortures himself, his relatives and friends, with his continual predictions of death.
