Original scientific paper

MYTH AND MEMORY. COUPLED WITH THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE NUMINOUS IN LITERATURE, ART AND POPULAR CULTURE: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND THE NUMINOUS

Bernd Rieken ; Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Univ. Wien, Austria

Abstract

The term numinous was devised by the Evangelistic theologist, Rudolf Ott, and denotes the specific feeling that human beings experience when confronted with transcendental forces. The numinous is felt in a twofold manner: it either has an attractive effect and contains something fascinating and spellbinding, or provokes chills, and has a threatening and spectral effect. Firstly, the stance towards the ethnological research into telling of tales will be outlined, followed by a psychological explanation of that experience. In the process, the numinous will be illuminated from the perspective of the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, the individual psychology of Alfred Adler, the complex psychology of C. G. Jung and the genetic epistemology of Jean Piaget.

Keywords

“Numinosität”; folktale studies; psychoanalysis; individual psychology; analytical psychology; “Synchronizität”; epistemological egocentrism

Hrčak ID:

2931

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/2931

Publication date:

15.12.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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