Since the archetypes are the instinctual forms of mental behavior
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
Dear Sir:
Since the archetypes are the instinctual forms of mental behavior it is quite certain that, inasmuch as animals possess a “mind,” their mind also follows archetypal patters, and presumably the same that are operative in the human mind.
As we do not know the actual status of an archetype in the unconscious and only know it in that form in which it becomes conscious, it is impossible to describe the human archetype and to compare it to and animal archetype. But the hypothesis is that they are the same.
This simply because there is no reason, or at least we don’t see one, why it should be otherwise. If I say that we do not know “the ultimate derivation of the archetypes,” I mean that we are unable to observe and describe the archetype in its unconscious condition. When I say that archetypes evolve from instincts, I describe no facts. It is a mere hypothesis—albeit a likely one.
But actually the facts of this origin into our animal ancestry. Thus f.i. the religious factor you mention. It is of course, as you say, an absurdity to isolate the human mind from nature in general. There is no difference in principle between the animal and the human psyche. The kinship of the two is too obvious.
Sincerely yours, C.G. Jung [Letter dated June 18, 1957]
Note:
Vernon asked: “Shall we not find the origin, or at least the development, of the archetypes by examining the family tree from which we trace our physical descent?”
Carl Jung Atom and Archetype Quotations
He [the Devil] is the father of this depreciatory interpretation. ~Carl Jung, tom and Archetype, Pages 97-101A
In my view, the discussion of Matter must have a scientific basis. That is why I pressed for [Answer to Job] and[Synchronicity]to be published at the same time. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetype, Pages 97-101
The union of opposites is not just an intellectual matter. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetype, Pages 97-101
It is certainly an indisputable fact that the unconscious has a “periodic” character; there are waves and swells that often produce such symptoms as seasickness, cyclical recurrences of nervous attacks or dreams. Over a period of 3 years, from mid-December to mid-January, I have observed in myself similar dreams that have made a very deep impression on me. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
The smallest mass particle consists of corpuscle and wave. The archetype (as structure element of the unconscious) consists of static form on the one hand and dynamics on the other. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
In that “spiritualism” and “materialism” are statements on Being, they represent metaphysical judgments. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
Nowhere else but in the psyche of the individual can the union be completed and the essential identity of Idea and Matter be experienced and perceived. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetlpe, Pages 97-101
metaphysical judgments lead to one-sidedness such as spiritualization or materialization, for they take a more or less large or significant part of the psyche and situate it either in Heaven or in earthly things, and then it can drag the whole person along with it, thus depriving him of his middle position. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
I am convinced that it (the psyche) is partly of a material nature. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
Theologians have the same resistance to psychologists as physicists, except that the former believe in Spirit and the latter in Matter. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
If one moves too far forward, it is often impossible to remember the thoughts one had before, and then the public finds one incomprehensible. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 97-101
Carried to its ultimate conclusion, Jordan’s approach would lead to the supposition of an absolute unconscious space in which an infinite number of observers are looking at the same object. The psychological version would be: In the unconscious there is just one observer, who looks at an infinite number of objects. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetipe, Pages 7-8
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