The Hero's Journey Course

About the Course

Please email us for more details of when and where 'The Hero's Journey' course will be held.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, you will be able to:

Define what being a hero means to you.
Identify some of the reasons why the human psyche needs heroic models.
Describe the importance of myth and story.
Describe the stages of the heroic journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Identify the stages of the hero’s journey in stories, myths and movies.
Relate the stages of the heroic journey to personal experiences.

Course Description

What is a hero? Why do we need heroes? Why is the hero story continually repeated in myth, story and film? Can women be heroes? How different is the heroic journey for women?

This course is an amalgam of Campbell's work on the hero's journey with current examples from popular culture and film. The course focuses on both the actual, physical journey and the metaphoric or psychological journey of the hero. We examine in detail the departure, initiation and return phases of the hero's journey and what each of these phases entails. Each participant will be invited to reflect on and to share the personal significance of the hero's journey.