ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to offer a close consideration of myths and philosophical accounts of "after death" in pursuit of insights and analytical categories to form a theoretical basis for studying "after leadership". In the Myth of Er, the choice of next life is characterized by forethought assailed by impatience, grandiose ambition, and avarice: it is as if most of these souls are already chained to the Promethean rock. The choice to take up a new role, like that of a new life, is only partly governed by conscious reasoning. Carl G. Jung's notion of individuation reinforces our argument to the extent that it offers yet another perspective on the operation of the unconscious in relation to the personal transformation of the kind invoked by role transition. Jung devoted a great deal of energy to an exhaustive exploration of the transformation motif in medieval forms of alchemy.
