ABSTRACT
The classical psychoanalytic employment of the myth sheds light on the nature of L and H links; it is equally illuminating for the K link. The pronouncement of the oracle defines the theme of the story and can be regarded as a definition, or definitory hypothesis. It resembles a preconception, or an algebraic calculus, in that it is an ‘unsaturated statement’ that is ‘saturated’ by the unfolding of the story; or an ‘unknown’, in the mathematical sense, that is ‘satisfied’ by the story. The common-sense view of mental development is that it consists in an increase of capacity to grasp reality and a decrease in the obstructive force of illusions. Psychoanalysts suppose that the exposure of archaic phantasies to modification by a sophisticated capacity for approximation to a series of theories that are consistent and compatible with the reception and integration of further experience, is therapeutic in its effects.
