Defining Archetypes

1
Defining Archetypes

• Carl Jungs 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 wheres other half?
• Anima- female aspect wheres 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' patterns of
  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.