AN OPEN LIFE Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms <i> edited by John Maher & Dennis Briggs (Harper & Row: $9.95, illustrated) </i>

Michael Toms, the host of New Dimensions Radio, conducted these interviews with Joseph Campell, the noted scholar of mythology and anthropology, over a ten-year period. Campbell argues that myths contain psychological elements that are essential to the development of the individual, but debunks many false notions about the importance and origins mythology. By explaining the underlying meaning of flood stories, he rejects both the literal-minded search for the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat and the equally unscientific attempts to link those myths to the “lost continent” of Atlantis. (The story of Atlantis is based on the destruction of the Mediterranean island of Thera, circa 1485 B.C.) In these life-affirming discussions, Campbell stresses the need to integrate the message of mythology into everyday life. Fascinating.