Heroic Self-Myth Hypothesis

Abstract

This article proposes the "Heroic Self-Myth Hypothesis," a transdisciplinary framework explaining a specific pathology of modern identity construction. Through a detailed analysis of Dostoevsky’s Smerdyakov (The Brothers Karamazov) as a conceptual prototype for Joyce’s characters in Ulysses, the article argues that a pervasive psychological mechanism involves transforming banality into pseudo-heroism to compensate for a profound internal vacuum. The hypothesis posits a sequence of neurocognitive and clinical processes: a dysregulated Default Mode Network fails to generate a coherent self-narrative, creating an existential void. This void is managed through performative substitution, where a hyper-vigilant Salience Network directs attention to external appearances as a substitute for internal substance. This process is catalyzed by developmental traumas, including paternal conflict rooted in envy and a traumatic maternal relationship leading to a fixation on physicality as a threat. The resulting moral disengagement and annihilation of a stable ethical core, often justified by a vulgarized "death of God" liberal philosophy, create a psychic vacuum. This vacuum is subsequently colonized by an "epic self-deception," a grandiose cognitive narrative that reframes a mundane life as a mythic journey. Synthesizing literary analysis, neurobiology, and clinical psychology, the article concludes that Smerdyakov represents not merely a literary character but an archetype of moral disintegration. The modernist hero is thus revealed not as an artistic innovation but as the aesthetic realization of a pre-existing psychological type—the individual who, having lost their moral center, elevates their own insignificance to cosmic significance through a self-authored, illusory heroism.