Arhetiputi.docx

1 Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious by John Gallagher Abstract This essay is an exposition of archetypes of the collective unconscious which represent constituents of the human psyche and innate ideas which facilitate our adaptation with the world and our inner world. These archetypes appear as symbols in dreams, mythology, art, literature, film and other forms of creative expression. The archetypes illustrated in this essay are the ego, super-ego, ego-consciousness, persona, id, shadow, anima, animus, Great Man and Great Woman, child, Self and psyche. The essay begins with an explanation of archetypes and the unconscious and finishes with a section on complexes. Archetypes An archetype is a recognisable theme, pattern, circumstance, image, motif etc. which reoccurs in human culture and experience. Archetypes of the collective consciousness are symbols and images which reoccur in dreams, myths, religion, literature, drama, poetry, film and television etc. in all cultures throughout the world. They may appear slightly differently, clothed in personal and cultural associations, but their forms originate from the collective unconscious. In Plato’s Theory of Forms, a form is the essence of thing in the material world which is an imperfect representation of a perfect form. Plato held that forms or universals were more real than imperfect objects or representations in the material world. Plato’s forms are abstract. They are ideas which are inherited from evolutional experience and abstracted from personal experience. These ideas or concepts comprise our conceptual framework or frame of reference. Our frame of reference is a network of interrelated ideas which models our environment and enables us to perceive, comprehend and adapt to our environment. Archetypes of the collective unconscious are universals in the human psyche which influence our psychic life as prototype ideas upon which our ideas are developed. Every animal is born with instincts providing them with an innate pattern of behaviour in response to external stimuli. Archetypes of the collective unconscious are psychic instincts or innate ideas which provide us with an instinctive pattern of feeling toned ideas which shape how we perceive objects in our environment through the process of projection. And conversely, objects which are the