Myths, functions

Dunne C., Murphy L., Flynn S., O Mahony L., O Halloran S., Feeney M., Morrissey D., Thornton G., Fitzgerald G., Daly C., Kiely B., Quigley E.M.M., O Sullivan G.C., Shanahan F. and Collins J.K. et al., (1999). Probiotics, from myth to reality. Demonstration of functionality in animal models of disease and in human clinical trials . Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek, 76, 279-92. 

On Lavoisier, see Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, "A Founder Myth in the History of Science The Lavoisier Case," 5378, in Loren Graham et al., eds., Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook VII (Dordrecht Reidel, 1983). 

Beynon RJ, Hurst JL, Gaskell SJ, Hubbard SJ, Humphries RE, Malone N, Marie AD, Martinsen L, Nevison CM, Payne CE, Robertson DHL, Veggerby C (2001) Mice MUPs and myths structure-function relationships of the major urinary proteins. In March-lewska-Koj A, Lepri JJ, Muller-Schwarze D (eds) Chemical signals in vertebrates IX. Cluver/Plenum, New York, p 149... 

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, A Founder Myth in the History of Sciences. The Lavoisier Case, in Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Fiistories, ed. L. Graham et al. (Reidel, 1983) idem, Une Mythologie Revolutionnaire dans la Chimie Frangaise, Annals of Science 40, 1983, 189-196. 

Art, being independent from external reality, is a logical product of chaos. The ability of the human brain to create an other world is unique. Reason is the enemy of art (James Ensor). Due to the chaotic function of the brain, humans created the world of myths, a universe that is in striking contrast to the rational world. In this irrational universe, we are unrestricted, free, and happy. Day-dreaming is the Sunday of thinking (Amiel). To compensate for the harsh reality of their lives, humans badly need the boons of the self-created, nonexistent universe. 

I have indicated the origins of this psychiatric mythology in Chapter 5, will trace its evolution further in Chapter 8, and shall discuss and document its recent history and present function in Chapters 9-13. See also Thomas S. Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness. 

In short, myth—whether of witdicraft or mental illness—functions as justificatory imagery and rhetoric for both the group and the individual. Myth, says Bronislaw Malinowski, can attach itself not only to magic but to any form of social power or social claim. It is used always to account for extraordinary privileges or duties, for great social inequalities, for severe burdens of rank, whether this be very high or very low. ... 

Paraffins have historically been regarded as an inert class of compounds. These new results coupled with our prior work prove that belief to be a myth. Indeed, when confronted by the appropriate chemical species, paraffins display a rich variety of functionalization reactions. 

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