The Collective Unconscious and Its Archetypes
From Carl Gustav Jung’s “The Structure of the Psyche”, 1927:
Just as some kind of analytical technique is needed to understand a dream, so a
knowledge of mythology is needed in order to grasp the meaning of a content
deriving from the deeper levels of the psyche….
The collective unconscious — so far as we can say anything about it at all —
appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason
the myths of all nations are its real exponents.
In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious.
We can see this most clearly if we look at the heavenly constellations, which
original chaotic forms were organized through the projection of images.
This explains the influence of the stars as asserted by astrologers.
These influences are nothing but unconscious, introspective perceptions of the activity of the collective unconscious.
Just as the constellations were projected into the heavens, similar figures were projected into legends and fairy tales or upon historical persons.
Jungian archetypes have a central role in dreams, art, myths, and legends.
Jung buried himself in the study of myths and art from across time and cultures to
build his concept of archetypes.
Jung, a psychiatrist and psychologist, was a contemporary of Sigmond Freud, the father of psychology.
Jung studied with Freud (1907-1912) for a time before parting and pursuing his own theory and work.
Freud’s psycho-sexual view of mental illness saw sexuality as the primary
driving force behind most or many mental disorders, especially neuroses.
Personality was composed of the instinctual Id, Ego, and Super Ego.
The ego was what we projected to the world.
The Super Ego played the role of a conscious, there to keep the Id in check.
In the Id was our animalistic, instinctual drives and desires.
Freud’s credo was that the purpose of treatment was to make the unconscious conscious.
This is still the guiding principle behind many insight-oriented therapies.
His treatment method was called psychoanalysis.
Jung set forth his own theory of libido and the unconscious.
His primary contributions in terms of therapy were several.
-His theories on personality types, which serves today as the basis for the
Myers-Briggs Personality Types classification system: Introvert/extrovert,
thinking/feeling, and intuition/sensation.
· His rejection of Freud’s psychosexual aetiology for neuroses, and his
corresponding emphasis on client’s here-and-now conflicts. This method
he referred to as analytical psychology.
· His emphasis on the libido as being more closely aligned with the will to
live rather than sexuality.
· The cooperation between the conscious and unconscious mind for mental
health and wellbeing.
The “unconscious” consists of the personal unconscious and well as a more global unconscious inherited in our species, referred to as the Collective Unconscious.
(See discussion in “consciousness and personality”, coming soon.)
It is to this last point that archetypes and symbols come into our discussions…
Summary of the Above contents of the collective unconscious are called “archetypes,” which means they are original (i.e., primal), inherited patterns, or forms of thought and experience.
They are the ancient, unconscious source of much that we think, do, and say as human beings.
They are the “givens” in our psychological makeup, the patterns that shape our perceptions of the world, the furnishings that are present in our psychological home from the moment of birth.
We inherit the same forms, but each of us fills in the content by the way we experience our lives.
, Father might be a positive archetype to one person, but it might be filled with negative meaning for another.
Archetypes can be loosely compared to the instincts of animals.
For example, birds instinctively know how to build nests and all the birds of a species build the exact same kind of nest.
The bird is unaware that it has a special instinct for a particular form of nest building.
Nevertheless, it does. Or we could say that dogs, as a species, are psychologically patterned to be loyal and obedient to the archetype of Master.
Master is an archetype that is strongly developed in dogs; however, it does not appear to be an archetype that exists in the psyches of giraffes, snails, or buffaloes.
Humans are the same way.
Archetypes that exist in humans include Male and Female, God and the Devil, Goddess and Witch, Father and Brother, Mother and Sister, Dragon, Lion, Priest, Lover, Hero, Tree, Snake, and so on.
We humans automatically inherit the outlines of these archetypes, fill them in with colours and details of our individual experiences, attach meaning to them, and project them into the outer world.
Archetypes are neither good nor bad. They simply are.
Archetypes are not
susceptible to being sugar-coated or tamed by civilization; they live an
autonomous existence at the root of our psyches in their original raw and
primitive states.
To most humans, with our limited awareness of the natural cycles of life and our fear of suffering, certain archetypal qualities seem good and others seem bad.
We are attracted to the “positive,” creating, nurturing aspects of Mother, for example, but terrified of her “negative” qualities such as her terrible fierce possessiveness, or her power of life and death over us.
Because of our fascination with, and fear of, these unknown qualities within us,
when an archetype appears in a dream it can have an especially powerful impact.
If a positive or likeable aspect of Lion, Dragon, Mother, Father, Goddess, or God appears in a dream, we may wake up feeling fascinated with the dream – it feels mysterious and meaningful.
The meaning behind this kind of dream is often more profound than the meanings behind dreams that have to do with our daily lives.
An archetypal dream may have something to do with our life’s journey: our striving for individuation, the unification of our masculine and feminine potential, or our initiation into the sacred realm.
But when an archetype appears in a dream in its negative or most primitive guise, it can disrupt our sleep in terrifying nightmares.
Then we want to run and hide.
We want to forget the dream as soon as we can, for it feels dangerous and
threatening to our well-being.
We cannot prevent these contents of the collective unconscious from appearing in our dreams, nor can we domesticate them, but we can diminish their power to interfere with our waking lives by paying attention to what they tell us about ourselves.
Accepting the fact that we contain the potential for vile and inhuman behaviour can be a humbling experience that teaches us tolerance, compassion, and empathy; when we know that the archetypal evil lives within ourselves, we are far less apt to point an accusatory finger at someone else. ~Philippe L. De Coster, D.D., The Collective Unconscious and Its Archetypes, Page 3-6
