Defining Archetypes

1. Defining Archetypes Carl Jung’s concept of Conscious vs. Unconscious

2. Defining them: • The contents of the collective unconscious • Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images • An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way

3. A few universal examples: • Animus- male aspect “where’s other half?” • Anima- female aspect “where’s other…?” • Shadow- primal, instinctive • Persona- public image • Father, mother, family, child, hero, wise old man, maiden, trickster, hermaphrodite, animal, original man, God

4. What is an archetype? • A hereditary given that shapes and transforms individual conscious. A given that is defined especially by a tendency rather than by specific contents, inherited images etc; a matrix that influences human behavior both on the level of ideas and on the moral, ethical level, of conduct in general.

5. What is an archetype? • Jung talks about archetype (named at first primordial image) as biologists' patternsof behavior. So, archetypes are innate tendencies that mold the human conduct.

6. The Concept: • "The concept of archetype,” states Jung, “arises from the repeated observation that sometimes myths and tales from universal literature comprise well-defined themes which reappear everywhere and every time. We find the same themes in fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of individuals that live in our present days".

7. The Concept: • These thematic images are representations of archetypes, they have archetypes as roots. They impress, influence and fascinate us. • Archetypes correspond to instincts that, as well, cannot be recognized as such unless they become manifest. • Finally, the archetype is psychoid, that is psychic-like but not immediately accessible to the mind.