Mythological Thinking of Primitive Humans: The Symbolic World Before Logic

Introduction: In the Era Without Logic, How Did Humanity Understand the World?

We often think of ancient people as ‘uncivilized beings who were not logical.’ But from a psychoanalytic perspective, the mythological thinking of primitive humanity is not simply a lack of intelligence, but shows a very dynamic and rich ‘early stage’ of the human spirit.

In those days when the subject and object were not completely separated yet, humanity read the world as hot ‘images and symbols,’ not cold facts. In this post, we will look at the key characteristics of this mythological thinking.

1. Participation Mystique: When the World and I Were One

‘Participation mystique,’ proposed by cultural anthropologist Lévy-Bruhl and borrowed by Jung, is the most important key term explaining mythological thinking. This refers to a state where the boundary between the subjective internal world and the objective external world is ambiguous.

Example: When a primitive person sees a tree in a forest, it is not just a plant. They feel that their soul or an ancestor of the tribe resides in that tree.
Psychoanalytic Meaning: This resembles the early stages of infantile ‘object relations.’ Just as a child feels external objects (mother or environment) as part of themselves, primitive humanity had a direct psychological connection with all natural things.

2. Projection: Drawing Internal Scenery in the Sky

Another characteristic of mythological thinking is ‘projection.’ Early humans had difficulty perceiving the complex emotions and desires occurring within themselves. Instead, they projected those onto external objects such as stars in the sky, lightning, and wild animals.

Why Does Lightning Strike?: feeling as “the anger within me has appeared as a phenomenon called lightning.”
Psychological Defense Mechanism: Projection was an unconscious effort to maintain psychological balance by sending unbearable internal energy outward. Myth is thus a ‘landscape painting of the collective unconscious’ that the entire humanity drew on the giant canvas of sky and earth.

3. Symbols and Metaphors: Stories Truthier than Facts

In mythological thinking, a symbol is not simply ‘something to replace,’ but a living ‘reality’ itself.

While modern people understand the sun as a fact—‘a mass of gas burning due to hydrogen bonding’—mythological humans accept the sun as a truth—‘the hero’s will to defeat darkness.’ If logical thinking asks “What is this?”, mythological thinking asks “What does this mean to me?”

Conclusion: Primitive Humanity Still Living Inside Us

Even today in the age of science, we still think mythologically. Behaviors like giving names and personalities to cherished objects or obsessing over jinxes prove that the functions of ‘participation mystique’ and ‘projection’ still live deep in our unconscious.

Understanding mythological thinking is the process of regaining the ‘sense of oneness with the world’ that we have lost. Reconstruct the mysterious moments of our lives that cannot be explained by dry logic alone through the lens of mythological symbols. Only then can we enjoy a more whole and rich life of the soul.

In the next post, we will deeply analyze ‘heroic myths,’ which are the peak form of such mythological thinking and our ego’s growth narrative, psychoanalytically.