Who created the idea of the hero's journey?

• A. Plato
• B. Carl Jung
• C. Sigmund Freud
• D. Joseph Campbell

Answer: (D)

Joseph Campbell is the scholar who formulated and popularized the idea of the hero’s journey. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he describes the monomyth—a universal storytelling arc that appears in myths from many cultures. The journey typically moves from the ordinary world into adventure, through trials and mentor guidance, across a threshold, and back home transformed or bearing a gift. This framework helps explain why many heroes’ stories feel familiar across time and culture and has influenced countless books and films.

Other thinkers touched on related concepts—Carl Jung explored archetypes and the collective unconscious, which inspired Campbell, but Jung didn’t create the structured journey framework. Freud’s theories focused on psychoanalytic development rather than a cross-cultural narrative pattern. Thus, the creator credited with naming and elaborating this specific journey is Joseph Campbell.