ABSTRACT
The metaphoric nature of myth has diagnostic implications. The classical diagnosis of myth, from Rank through Róheim, treated symbols as unconscious manifestations and myths as symptoms of cultural psychopathologies. Overemphasizing the distinction between symptoms and defenses, ego psychology reassessed myths and persuasively identified them as defenses. Both approaches shared the assumption that myths are irrational products of unconscious thought. Both may be contrasted to Silberer’s approach, which maintained that the anagogical content of myths is conscious, metaphoric, and potentially rational.
