What some of us are telling you is that Velikovsky was saying the exact opposite. That the MYTHS of ancient people are not made up stories but are representations of actual historic events.The historical paradigm used by Velikovsky is exactly one of those attempts to frame all of the folk beliefs as nothing but "primitive fear and superstition worthy of derision," as you put it.
You say he was a psychoanalyst. Yes, Wikipedia says:
Career as a psychiatrist[edit]
Velikovsky lived in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1924 to 1939, practising medicine in the fields of general practice, psychiatry and psychoanalysis which he had studied under Sigmund Freud's pupil Wilhelm Stekel in Vienna. During this time, he had about a dozen papers published in medical and psychoanalytic journals. He was also published in Freud's Imago, including a precocious analysis of Freud's own dreams.[12]
Wikipedia also says:
I would say these efforts of Dr. Velikovsky are hardly the work of someone who is attempting to frame all of the folk beliefs as nothing but "primitive fear and superstition worthy of derision".He arrived at a body of radical inter-disciplinary ideas, which might be summarised as:[citation needed]
Planet Earth has suffered natural catastrophes on a global scale, both before and during humankind's recorded history.
There is evidence for these catastrophes in the geological record (here Velikovsky was advocating Catastrophist ideas as opposed to the prevailing Uniformitarian notions) and archeological record. The extinction of many species had occurred catastrophically, not by gradual Darwinian means.
The catastrophes that occurred within the memory of humankind are recorded in the myths, legends and written history of all ancient cultures and civilisations. Velikovsky pointed to alleged concordances in the accounts of many cultures, and proposed that they referred to the same real events.
Perhaps you could give us specific quotes from Velikovsky that you have a problem with. It would be most helpful.
Jack
Ps. I do see, from your quotes, that some ancient people might have known of the planetary responsibility for, or involvement with, cataclismic events.