Archetypes and Cultural Literacy

1. Archetypes and Cultural Literacy

2. Archetypes & The Collective Unconscious • People who had no contact with each other at all formed myths to explain natural phenomena such as great floods and the creation of the world as well as to answer such questions as why we die and why we are born. These fantasy images of the primitive mind are so alike for all cultures that Jung calls them the Collective Unconscious. They remain part of every human unconscious mind as dreams of fantasy and fear. They are living, psychic forces which demand to be taken seriously.

3. Cultural Literary (CL) 1: Carl Jung 1875 - 1961 • Swiss psychologist / psychoanalyst • Jung’s theory divides the psyche into three parts: Ego/Personal Unconscious/Collective Unconscious • It is the collective unconscious that makes his theory different from that of his contemporary Sigmund Freud • The Collective Unconscious has never been conscious, but is that part we all share with all humanity as illustrated in the commonalities of trances, dreams, delusions, myths, religions, and stories. It is from the collective unconscious that we derive archetypes

4. CL 2: Sigmund Freud 1856 - 1939 • Austrian psychologist/psychoanalyst • Considered the “father of psychology” • Developed the concept of the id, ego, and super-ego (1923) • Freud was training Jung as his successor; however, due to differences in theory and ideals, the relationship was severed. • How does Freud differ from Jung for our purposes? Freud believes in the personal unconscious, which is personal experience that has been forgotten or repressed.

5. CL 3: Joseph Campbell 1904 - 1987 • American author who is known for his work in the field of comparative mythology • In university, he specialized in medieval literature. He was influenced by the art of Picasso and Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. • Campbell’s theory: all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.

6. CL 3 (continued) • Hero with a Thousand Faces –1949 • In this study of the “myth of the hero,” Campbell asserts that there is a single pattern of heroic journal and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. He outlines the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero’s journey. • “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation. . .” Hero with a Thousand Faces

7. CL 4: George Lucas 1944 • Writer & Director (creator of a few movies—maybe you know them—Star Wars Saga & Indiana Jones) • His first love was car racing, but after a near-fatal accident, he became interested in anthropology, sociology, and psychology. He was particularly fascinated with indigenous fold tales and their cultural context. • While in college, he discovered Campbell’s Hero. . .Faces, which examined universal themes of myths and fairy tales from a variety of ages and cultures.

8. CL 4 (continued) • Star Wars IV – VI are the middle portion of an intended nine-part tale. (very epic to begin in the middle) • A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . . • And so begins the unit on Archetypes. . . .