Going Beyond Family Myths to What Really Happened

Family myths aren’t always true.

Your family myths may be stories your people choose to tell about themselves regardless of what really happened.

What are myths?

Myths are stories we tell about how the world seems to us to be organized. Most of us are familiar with the religious myths Greeks and Romans told as they sought to explain their world. These have survived as labels for archetypes and psychological energies—and for naming running shoes and submarines.

The myths we tell are so power...