A Pedagogical Stunt

January 30th, 2008

A diagram by Joseph Campbell appearing in The Power of Myth, which I have redrawn.

pedagogical stunt

“A pedagogical stunt. Plato has said somewhere that the soul is a circle. I took this idea to suggest on the blackboard the whole sphere of the psyche. Then I drew a horizontal line across the circle to represent the line of separation of the conscious and the unconscious. The dot in the center of the circle, below the horizontal line, represents the center from which all our energy comes… Above the horizontal line is the ego, which I represented as a square: that aspect of our consciousness that we identify as our center. But, you see, it’s very much off center. We think that this is what’s running the show, but it isn’t” (p142).

5 Responses to “A Pedagogical Stunt”

  1. Greg Pass Says:

    PS — this diagram epitomizes contemplative geometry. Experiment!

  2. Zaphod Says:

    Man, it looks like a Poke’Mon ball.

  3. Damien Says:

    Love the simplicity and elegance.
    More appreciation of this would eliminate a lot of personal (self imposed) suffering.

  4. Angel arevalo Says:

    Very self explanatory.

  5. Symbols emerge from “our biological ground” | neutec Says:

    […] Perhaps one of the greatest imaginations of all is that of the famous mythologist and writer, Joseph Campbell. Following is a diagram he drew and called “A pedagogical stunt”. […]

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