Jung & Archetypes

March 19, 2015

Introduction to Psychology

Jung & Archetypes

This research paper explores Carl Jung and his theory involving archetypes that are
present in different cultures and societies throughout the world. Carl Jung was born in
Switzerland in 1875 and is credited for founding analytic psychology (Jung, 2015, p. 1). Jung
started with analytic psychology and later worked more in depth, building on his theory. Jung
was one of the first people to look deeply into the human psyche and was able to create a theory
that dove deep into both the human conscious and unconscious. Through doing this, Jung was
also able to create a variety of groups known as archetypes that are seen in almost all societies.
Analytical psychology focuses on how past experiences set a mold for your present day
life. This theory continues to explore how your present day life affects mental growth and
development for a persons future. Early in his career Jung was a supporter of Sigmund Freud
who was known at the time as the father of psychoanalysis. In 1912, while on a tour of America,
Jung openly criticized Freuds theory of the Oedipus complex and his emphasis on infantile
sexuality that ultimately lead to the collaboration splitting up the following year (McLeod, 2014,
p. 1). Jung was in concurrence with part of Freuds psychoanalysis theory in that ones past
troubles and triumphs influence their future behavior. Contrasting Freuds theory, Jung believed
that humans are also affected by their future goals and intentions. This suggests that Jung placed
a higher focus on the subconscious than Freud did which lead to Jung proposing that the
unconscious psyche was composed of three components; the ego, the personal unconscious, and
the collective unconscious (McLeod, 2014, p. 3).
The first component of the unconscious psyche that Jung theorized is ego, which
represents the conscious mind as it senses thoughts, memories, and emotions. Through ego one is
able to sense or detect the conscious at work. The second component of is the personal
unconscious, which contains past memories from ones life including memories that were

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suppressed in an attempt to be forgotten. The third and final component of the unconscious
psyche is the collective unconscious, which contains all the information that we inherit from our
ancestors. Jung believes that the collective unconscious contains all of the knowledge and
experiences we share as a species (Cherry, 2014, p. 1). By grouping these components together,
Jung was able to make it easier for one to better understand the unconscious human psyche. This
was an essential step in Jungs career, which allowed him to further theorize archetypes that have
been present since some of the earliest ancient societies were formed.
At this point in time, Jung had already theorized the three components of the
unconscious. In the collective unconscious lie ancestral memories and images that are theorized
by Jung as archetypes (McLeod, 2014, p. 4). Archetypes have been passed down through the
generations as we evolve as a species. Without archetypes humans would be born into a world
with zero knowledge and experience passed down through ancestors. This would ultimately
make it harder for us to survive as a species. The term archetype has its origins in ancient
Greek with the root word being archein, which Golden (p. 1) translates to original or old; and
typos, which means pattern, model or type. When combined, the meanings of the two root
words translate into original pattern in which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are
derived, copied, modeled, or emulated (Golden, 2011, p. 1). This text infers that the old patterns
and concepts that we see in ancient societies are passed down genetically and stored in our
unconscious. Jung explained that all the most powerful ideas in history can be traced back to
archetypes (Cherry, 2015, p. 1). This is very important in understanding the role that archetypes
have played in society throughout our evolution as a species. They have been present in culture
throughout the ages and often times appear in dreams, literature, art and religion (McLeod, 2014,
p. 4). In religion there are many archetypes that are seen throughout different cultures and

Jung & Archetypes

practices regardless of time period and location. This is possible because of the archetypes that
are naturally engrained in our subconscious which allow many cultures to share the same beliefs
as another religion due to the evolution of our species. Jungs theory supports this suggesting that
symbols from different cultures are often similar because they have emerged from archetypes
shared by the whole human race (McLeod, 2014, p. 4).
Through Jungs theorization of the human psyche Jung was able to come up with many
archetypes that serve as a basis for most personality tests these days. Jung identified four major
archetypes, but also believed there was no limit to the number archetypes that may exists in
todays society (Cherry, 2015, p. 1). This suggests that new archetypes can be invented by
anyone at any time in history, but there is no scale to gauge how far reaching the archetype is in
culture besides a logical guess. Keep in mind that Jung believed that our primitive past was the
basis of the human psyche, which ultimately influences our present day behaviors.
One of the four major archetypes theorized by Jung is called persona. Cherry (2014) says
persona is derived from Latin, which directly translates to the English word mask (p. 3).
Persona is the public face or role that a person projects to others that contrasts who they really
are (McLeod, 2014, p. 4). This means that somewhere in our collective unconscious is an
archetype that is used by almost everyone as a defense mechanism for a persons ego. The
persona symbolizes the imaginary masks that a person uses in differing situations that can also be
triggered when around certain people.
A second major archetype theorized by Jung is known as the shadow. The shadow is a
common archetype that is very similar to Freuds id and comprises our animal urges or survival
reproduction (McLeod, 2014, p. 4). This archetype represents a darker more evil side of the
psyche that often times exemplify disorder and misconduct in society. For example in religion

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the shadow archetype is often accossiated with the devil. In Cherrys (2014) article Jung suggests
that many people deny possessing a shadow archetype and instead project the shadow onto
others (p. 2). With this information Jung suggests
The third major archetype that Carl Jung theorized in his journey with psychology is
known as the anima or animus. In this archetype, the psyche of a woman contains masculine
aspects (the animus archetype) and the psyche of a man contains feminine aspects (the anima
archetype) (McLeod, 2014, p. 4). Throughout man and womans time of living together as a
family the human unconscious has picked up another archetype that comes directly from living
with and observing the other partners male or female aspects. This means that men have
observed many things from living with women throughout our species evolution, and vise versa.
The last major archetype defined by Jung is known as the self. The self is an archetype
that represents the unification of the unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual
(Cherry, 2014, p. 2). This archetype is needed by the human species to better understand ones
self. Humans can obtain this when a plethora of aspects of personality are integrated. The overall
process in the creation of the self is known as individuation.
Jungs theorization is not as widely accepted as Freuds work. On the whole, modern
psychology has not viewed Jungs theory of archetypes kindly (McLeod, 2014, p. 5). This is
most likely due to Jungs outlandish and hard to understand ideas limited understanding of his
work. Jungs work is thought to be more of a new era of speculation than a solid scientific effort
to contribute towards understanding the human psyche. One good thing that Jungs work
provides is a base model of the psyche for later psychologists to work off of and build on.

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References
Cherry, K. (2015). Archetypes. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/tp/archetypes.htm
Golden, C. (2011). The 12 Common Archetypes. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html
Jung's Archetypes. (2015). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm
Jung, C. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://www.biography.com/people/carl-jung-9359134.
McLeod, S. (2014). Carl Jung. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html