God in the Shadow of Man - Myth and Creation by Shlomo Giora Shoham

This tantalizing book is based on the pioneering work of Claude Levi-Strauss, who postulated that myths are links between nature and culture. Shoham enlarges this concept and claims that myth in the form of a mythogene, the structural longings and experiences of the individual as projected onto mythology, links history and transcendence, the individual and society, and consciousness and energy-matter. The mythogenes are related to Shoham's personality theory, which, in essence, postulates that personality types can be taxonomized along a continuum with one pole having the Tantalic type, which aims to melt into the object, and the other pole having the Sisyphean type, which aims to overpower and control the object. This incredible tour-de-force that spans the great works of science, literature, philosophy, sociology and religion will shake you to the roots of your being. It is hard to come away from this book without asking, who am I, and have I really came that far? And what future is there?