The Archetype - One Story Of You

The study of the soul

To many, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud defined the world of psychology. Their theories, although differing, have had the most significant impact on our perception of the human mind, and their contributions to theory and practice have led to the development of successful psychological treatments for the wide spectrum of human distress.

Carl Jung is recognised as one of the most influential psychiatrists of all time. He founded analytical psychology and developed the concepts of the extroverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields. While Carl Jung is best known for his ideas on the unconscious, Jung was first and foremost a practicing psychologist. Throughout his voluminous writings, one can find many practical tips on how to live a better life. Though not without faults, Jung was one of modern history's most intriguing minds.

My discovery with Carl Jung started with a book called Memories, Dreams, Reflections written as an autobiography when he was eighty-one years old. Jung's reflections span everything from the minutia of working for a living to the grand truths of the human condition to the nature of the divine. This particular passage struck me as a powerful lens on consciousness and what it means to be human:?

“But man's task is the exact opposite: to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious. Neither should he persist in his unconsciousness, nor remain identical with the unconscious elements of his being, thus evading his destiny, which is to create more and more consciousness. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere beings. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious.”

The idea that most people for most of their life live without understanding their unconscious mind is fascinating and deeply troubled me. So, why are people not investigating their inner selves? What are the factors? Jung has the answer: People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. In other words, we immediately realise how little attention we give to this subject, and how much we lack a meaningful and shared answer to the questions.?The reality of the (let’s call it) soul seems to have lost its cultural relevance, it is forgotten science perhaps?

Archetypes

In 1919 Carl Jung proposed the idea of Archetypes. But Jung didn’t feel he created the idea of archetypes, pointing out that they were already recognised in other fields, such as literature with its idea of ‘motifs’ in myths.

The origin of the word archetype means "original imprint or mold." In studying the myths and religions of cultures past and present Jung notices that many of them shared similar patterns, themes, and symbols. But what further piqued Jung’s curiosity was that some of these same symbols arose in the dreams and fantasies of patients who suffered from schizophrenia. Jung proposed that the human psyche is not exclusively the product of personal experience, but rather contains elements that are pre-personal, or trans-personal and common to all. These elements he called archetypes, and it is their influence on human thought and behavior that gives rise to the similarities between various myths and religions.

An archetype can be a thought, image, concept, experience, and even feeling. As long as it is a pattern that transcends time, culture, and individuality, it could be argued it’s an archetype. Examples often given are ‘the loving mother’, ‘the wise old man, and the shape of a cross. You often find archetypes showing up in religious art, in different cultures and times.

Jung was obsessed with reading different myths. He read myths from all over the world and from different periods, in different old languages. What fascinated him was that all those myths were similar, repetitive,?and contained similar characters and plot lines, even though they were from different parts of the world. In addition to this, as a practicing psychologist, he would consistently find in myths the same images, ideas, or characters he or his patient's dreams, without any knowledge of similar myths in existence. It was like something connected all of humankind, across time.

Collective unconscious?

According to Jung, the psyche is encompassing all one’s thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and emotions. Jung divided the psyche into three major realms: Consciousness, Personal Unconscious, and Collective unconsciousness.?

The Person Unconsciousness - particular to each individual, it consists of events of one’s life that are deemed insignificant are forgotten, or are repressed due to their distressing nature.

The Collective Unconscious consists of psychic structures or cognitive categories which are not unique to individuals, but rather are shared by all; influencing our thoughts, behaviors, and the way we look at the world.

Jung believed in a collective unconscious; one from which we derive archetypes — aka patterns — developed in different times and places irrespective of the knowledge of similar patterns in other times and places. The idea of the collective unconscious is that every person in the world is connected by an understanding of patterns, symbols, tendencies, and situations. These patterns (a pattern that is universally recognized by people of different eras as a consequence of the collective unconscious) symbols, tendencies, and situations are archetypes. Archetypes are universal, inborn models of people, behaviors, and personalities that play a role in influencing human behavior. He suggested that these archetypes were archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors.?

Archetypes: One Pathway to Knowing Yourself & Others

Archetypes are the secret forces behind human behavior because it is unconscious, we are not aware of it, these are inherited dispositions, which cause us to react in a typical way to basic human problems. Archetypes are universal, but the way they manifest in your life will be unique to you. The archetypes you unconsciously choose to work with will be triggered by your personal life experience.

While archetypes are everywhere, their significance is not well-known: not only can we actively work with them to achieve greater self-awareness but also activate psychological growth. If we were to transpose this notion to the 21st Century, we would find the majority of the archetypes discovered by Jung stand true even today. Broadly, heroes and villains; sages and healers; nurturers and protectors; seem to be the themes against which most modern individuals can be studied under.

It is essential to understand these archetypes in this modern world and why they exist. Using archetypes allows us to make quick judgments about people, expending relatively little mental energy in doing so. This allows us to make easy assessments about what level we wish to engage with them on. It doesn’t mean we may be missing a deeper understanding of the people we encounter, but it allows us to build a good understanding of the people we’re interacting with and understand how conscious they are of themselves even.?

In one of his lectures, Jung is quoted as saying, “If you put yourself into the icon, the icon will speak to you…. It has a magic effect.” In other words, if you engage with the archetype, it will reveal its message to you. There are several techniques and models for engaging with archetypes, including active imagination, dialoguing, and the four cardinal orientations. Other techniques are primarily used by mental health professionals.

Archetypes are containers that hold powerful patterns of symbols, stories, myths, and metaphors. By investigating the archetypal patterns that emerge in our lives—whether it’s analyzing a dream, participating in a psychotherapy session incorporating active imagination, or using another method—we can unlock the archetypes’ power. In doing so, we can access deeper levels of insight, wisdom, and creative energy, and gain a level of understanding that exists beyond the limits of the rational, linear mind. The spark of insight that can come from connecting to an archetype can ultimately help us hone in on the essential truth about a matter. And when we connect to our essential truth, we are that much more whole.

Because (like it or not) we remain unaware of our real motivations, what drives us, and what makes us make decisions. We remain unconscious of the emotions we are expressing, behind the social masks we each present to each other. We play politics, we often forget how to be truly human.?

Finally, understanding archetypes allow us to connect deeper with art, politics, cultures, and the rest of the world. It can aid in the understanding of different cultures, politics, and even conflicts (Russian war against Ukraine). Symbols from different cultures are often very similar because they have emerged from archetypes shared by the whole human race which are part of our collective unconscious.

Personas & Branding

Archetypes are distinct from personas (a word derived from Latin which means ‘mask’), which represent the image we wish to project to the outside world. Our personas are deliberately driven constructs that we can control, either projecting from our unconscious archetype or via external influences such as social conventions.

Nowadays, the original 12 Jungian archetypes are used in Branding too. Brand archetypes help you establish the human character traits that most accurately reflect the company’s brand. This enables the company’s brand to create deeper connections with its audience and customers and build strong emotional interactions. They help you create an attractive force, pulling and enticing the audience to the company’s brand via shared values, resulting in better brand perception, greater brand advocacy, and a stronger, more loyal customer base.

Carl Jung sought to do what many others could not do proving that the materialistic world is not all that there is. He argued that while archetypes may not be composed of matter, and have any mass they still exist. This is a strong belief that falls in line with modern quantum physics. Unlike what Descartes, Newton, and even Darwin believed, only things that have matter, matter modern physics, and prove that there unseen world that exists, but is just as real. Therefore, Jung's radical idea is that the unconscious mind is real.