| Throughout the evolution of humankind, stories about love have documented attitudes, beliefs, ideas, and shifting traditions and social conventions, particularly with regard to romantic love. Unconsciously accepting the myth of the magical other promulgated in Western culture, individuals crave love's enchantment, but eventually most will feel the pain of impossible love. Influenced by the theories of Carl G. Jung and James Hillman, heuristic and hermeneutic methods are used to examine and revise some of the defunct myths by which Western society lives and loves. Nowhere is one more at risk of distorted vision than when in the crossfire of Eros's arrow. Analysis of the myths of Psyche and Eros and Tristan and Isolde along with the author's own experience identifies archetypal patterns and themes common to romantic and impossible love in an effort to relieve the shame associated with failures in love, thus creating a new perspective associated with loss. |
