Pre‐Hispanic perspectives on the modern Mexican psyche; contemporary subjects and ancient objects. A Mayan text of evolution: the stages of creation in the Popol Vuh or sacred book of the Mayans

The ancestral tribes of Mexico, like any people living within a certain culture, may be affected by the archetypal images and values of their surroundings. Access to the imagery of the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh, has provided an orientation in my analytical work with Mexican patients as they attempt to recreate themselves by engaging their conflicts around their reality, individuality and capacity to relate. I will address the psychological meaning of the different stages of creation: the original creative event, the man of mud, the man of wood, the false sun and the man of corn. With these images, I will illustrate their clinical application in analytic work with three Mexican middle age male patients dealing with different issues of identity and with a young female patient struggling to separate from a manipulative and destructive family system.