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ERNST KRIS, WHO INTRODUCED THE CONCEPT OF THE PERSONAL myth into psychoanalytic writings (1956), connected it to an autobiographical set of memories that serve as a protective screen carefully constructed to cover significant omissions and distortions in the life history of the analysand. He thought that in some cases the personal myth covers specific periods of individual history, while in others it covers the total life history; in both instances it becomes the object of strong cathexes and takes its final form during puberty and adolescence.
The economic function of the personal myth is to help maintain repression through the strong counterinvestment of a specific set of autobiographical memories, thus preventing certain experiences and impulses from reaching consciousness. The countercathected set takes the place of a repressed fantasy from which it derives part of its investment and which represents variations on the theme of the family romance. The early fantasies, combined with early memories and elements of the family romance, are incorporated into the myth, which is the end product of the reinterpretation and reorganization of previous experiences. Concerning the developmental point of view, Kris follows closely Freud's (1909) line of thinking.
Bion (1963), on the other hand, as could be expected, is more