Carl Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875. Carl Jung created the school of analytical psychology. He originated the psychological concepts of collective unconscious and archetypes along with an introverted and extroverted personality.
Jung’s Theory of the Collection Unconscious:
Coherent to Jung, the collective unconscious is the assemblage of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and communal to all human survivors due to inherited experience. Human beings are not aware of the thoughts and images present in their collective unconscious. It is presumed that in jiffies of crisis, the psyche can tap into the collective unconscious. Jung believed that the collective unconscious is expressed through universal thought-forms or mental images that influence an individual’s feelings and actions, which is called archetypes (Jung, 1947).
Archetypes can be signs, symbols, or patterns of thinking and behaving that are inherited from our ancestors. An Example of Archetype would be Mother-Child Relationship.
Carl Jung identified different types of Archetypes. Jungian Archetypes are:
- The Child: This archetype usually follows a young or naive character who sees the world through rose-tinted glasses, until reality comes knocking. That’s not to say that they end the story as jaded husks of their former selves, but they will learn a lesson or two about the world around them.
Strengths: Optimism, enthusiasm, imagination.
Weaknesses: Naivete, physical powerlessness.
Desires: To be happy (or happier).
2. The Great Mother: The Great Mother archetype has the idealized potentials of the mother figure. She is kind, concerned, trustworthy, and loving like the Wise Old Man. She may offer guidance when asked. There are two sides, the light and shadow of the Great Mother archetype, which has been termed the Nurturing Mother and the devouring Mother.
It is important to remember the Nurturing mother and the devouring mother are both crucial and related features of the same archetype. The Nurturing mother is benevolent, life-sustaining, generous, and ever-renewing of herself and the world around her. There is also the other aspect of the great mother, that is the Devouring mother, who is persistent in demanding the death of those whose time has come (in this aspect she appears as those weavers, the Fates, in the Mediterranean and Eastern European folktales). As Devouring Mother, she is not merely an emotionless but terrible one.
3. The Persona: The persona (or mask) is the superficial face we present to the world. It hides our real self, and Jung labels it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the general face or role a person presents to others as someone dissimilar to who we are (like an actor).
4. The Anima/ Animus: Another archetype is the Anima/Animus. The “anima/animus” is the reflected image of our biological gender, that is, the unconscious female side in males and the masculine tendencies in women.
The Anima: The psyche of a man contains feminine aspects.
The Animus: The psyche of a woman contains masculine aspects
Each sex manifests the attitudes and behavior of the other by centuries of living together.
5. The Shadow Archetype: This is the animal side of our character (like the id in Freud). It is the cause of both our artistic and disparaging energies. This archetype contains all of the things that are unacceptable not only to society but also to one’s own personal morals and values. It might contain things such as envy, greed, prejudgment, hate, and anger. It might appear in dreams as a snake, a monster, a demon, a dragon, or some other dark, wild, or exotic figure. Jung believed, people sometimes deny this element of their psyche and instead project it on to others.
6. The Eros: The archetype explains the character of a boy or girl reaches adolescence. The Eros have Beauty, charisma, amorality. They have a lack of loyalty and integrity. An unconscious Eros always exhibits itself as the will to power.
7. The Hero: The axis of the hero’s life is power. The hero has an uncommon vitality and resistance that they use to fight for power or honor. They’ll do anything to avoid losing. They don’t lose because they never give up. The hero can be overly ambitious and controlling. In the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, both Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins are classic Hero archetypes.
8. The Wise Old Man archetype: Through his age and feebleness, the Wise Old Man signifies the power of peace in the absence of physical ability. The wise old man, through quiet thought, predicts the future and offers guidance in turbulent times. The wise old man is an inspired archetype and can often be in stories as a wizard, such as Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
9. The Trickster: The trickster is an experimenter, a magician, creating realism in the duality of time and illusion. The trickster breaks the guidelines of the Gods or nature sometimes maliciously (for example, Loki) but usually with ultimately positive things. Often, the rule-breaking takes the cast of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be clever or foolish or both. They are often very funny even when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks. In many nations (as may be seen in Greeks) the trickster and the culture hero are often united.
10. The Self: The self is the uppermost of all the archetypes. It allows the man to realize his true potentials as a human being. Creating the self arises by a development recognized as individuation, in which the various aspects of personality combined.
Jung believed that disharmony between the unconscious and the conscious mind could be a cause of psychological problems.
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