Unlocking the Hidden Depths: The Protagonist’s Journey Like You’ve Never Seen Before
Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell remind us that the outer journey of the hero is about the inner journey into the Self.
Reflecting back on the twenty-one months I spent writing The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling, it was a fascinating odyssey affording me the opportunity to craft a comprehensive take on what I have been researching and teaching for nearly two decades.
My mantra: Begin with character. End with character. Find the story in between.
Along the way, I analyzed quite literally hundreds of movies and television series, and realized the fundamental premises of my book exist in an even wider vista than I had imagined.
Years ago, I read this observation by Carl Jung, father of analytical psychology:
The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict.
Upon reading those words, I made a major connection: This is a clear articulation of the Protagonist’s journey, specifically the Unity Arc. They begin in a state of Disunity and through the course of their adventure, they go through a psychological metamorphosis moving toward Unity.
Moreover, as Jung asserts, there is a synergy between the inner life of the individual and the incidents which transpire in their outer world of experience. This, too, speaks to the nature of the Protagonist’s journey, how the events of the plot, even the characters with whom the Protagonist intersects are intimately tied to emotional conflicts and psychological tensions which exist within this central character.
Joseph Campbell, who was hugely influenced by Jung, states very much the same thing:
The passage of the mythological hero may be over ground, incidentally;
fundamentally it is inward — into depths where obscure resistances are overcome,and long lost, forgotten powers are revivified… The perilous journey [is] a labor not of attainment but reattainment, not discovery but rediscovery.
