Joel Christensen is a Professor of Classics at Brandeis University and author of the book The Many Minded Man. He also posts regularly on the popular Classics-oriented website Sententiae Antiquae. 

At the end of 2020 I hosted a series of 5 long form conversations on the theme of calling and meaning, using Homer's Odyssey as an anchor, so when I came across Joel's book The Many Minded Man, I had to reach out to him.

The book explores Homer's Odyssey through a modern psychological lens, focusing on how it reflects the workings of the human mind and provides a model for coping with the challenges of chance and fate.

In this episode we discuss:

- The concept of agency and how The Odyssey helps us to understand what we can control
- How to use the power of storytelling to make sense of your life and the world around you
- What modern psychology can learn from Homer's Odyssey and Iliad

This was a wonderful conversation centred on some of the greatest stories ever told, which will show you how storytelling can shape a sense of agency and provide solutions to help you avoid destructive patterns.

Show Notes

• Introducing Joel Christensen [00:37]
• Why does Joel consider his home life to be more important than school in his early years and how did his perspective change when he started university? [02:41]
• Joel recalls his history with the Iliad and the Odyssey, how the classics helped him reflect on life, and the key lessons ingrained in the epics [05:54]
• How do culture and community strengthen the timelessness of the Iliad and the Odyssey? [13:34]
• What were the questions that inspired Joel to write about the Odyssey from a modern psychological standpoint? [16:55]
• How does the intersection of modern psychology and the Homeric epics help inform the nature vs nurture debate [19:26]
• How does our sense of freewill affect the way we exercise our agency? [22:18]
• Is fate pre-determined or is it constructed through our own actions? What does Odysseus’ perseverance prove about agency and its role in his fate? [24:22]
• How does Homer’s storytelling make use of Odysseus’ personal narrative both as a disempowering tool and as a tale of redemption? [26:59]
• What mistake do readers make when identifying only with the hero of the epic? [34:15]
• Does the Odyssey fully represent the limits of human agency? And how does this epic explore the dangers of power? [35:30]
• Closing remarks [39:16]

Resources

Follow Joel online

Website | Portfolio

• The Many-Minded Man: The "Odyssey," Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic by Joel Christensen
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• ML144: Anna Gát on Building an Intellectual Community, Escaping Utility Tyranny and Facilitating Great Conversations