Jungian Archetypes in 10 Minutes

few people have had as much influence on Modern psychology as KL Yung he has coined terms such as extroversion and introversion archetypes anima and animus Shadow and the collective unconscious among others he was a practicing psychiatrist and is regarded as the founder of analytical psychology or Jun analysis in his early years he came into contact with sigon Freud the founder of psychoanalysis they had a close relation and collaborated on a joint vision of human psychology however they parted wayes Jung's personal research on analytical psychology and especially upon the discovery of a collective unconscious made it

impossible for him to follow Freud psychoanalysis this resulted in a painful Schism after years of collaboration Jung's analytical psychology essentially gave birth to the empirical science of the psyche which culminated in his magnum opus the collected works written over a period of 60 years during his lifetime Yung distinguishes our psyche into three different Realms Consciousness the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious Consciousness is composed of our field of awareness all the experiences that we are aware of this is where we form our ego however according to Yung it is dwarfed in relation to the unconscious

the personal unconscious is particular to each individual and is made of parts that are unique to our own lives thoughts we are not aware of have forgotten or have been repressed due to their disturbing nature on the other hand the collective unconscious is the deepest part of our unconscious which is genetically inherited and not shaped by personal experience this is where the archetypes are found archetypes represent Universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious Yung believe that we inherit these archetypes just as we inherit instinctive patterns of behavior Jung was also an

expert on the study of religious and mythological symbology the working book both of these fields led to the discovery of the archetypes the study of these Smiths of cultures revealed similar pthms he even found the same symbols in dreams of patients suffering from schizophrenia which reinforced the idea of archetypes and a collective unconscious apart from his travels in the United States and England Yung had traveled to East Africa to learn about the natives who had never been in contact with European culture he had also traveled to India where he felt himself under the influence of

a foreign culture for the first time Hinduism played an important element in his understanding of the role of symbolism and the unconscious although Yung suggested a series of archetypes such as the father the mother the wi old man the hero the trickster among others we will be focusing on what are regarded as the four major Union archetypes the self the Persona the Shadow and the anima animus the first archetype is the self to understand the self we need to know how it differs from the ego which is part of the realm of Consciousness Jung considers

the self to be superior in rank to the ego the ego is acquired during an individual's Lifetime and therefore it is a conscious factor in theory you could describe the ego completely but this would only amount to the conscious personality not the total picture which would have to include the unconscious Parts the ego is composed of the sematic and the psychic factors the Matic is the physical self our body while the psychic relates to our inner self our mind both the somatic and the psychic have conscious and unconscious factors the ego's main characteristic is our

individuality that is part of our Consciousness however it is only one part of the personality and not the whole of it the remaining part is composed of the unconscious the sum of the conscious and unconscious is what Jung calls the self which makes up the total personality of individual to achieve the self Yung Central concept revolved around what he called individuation or self-realization a lifelong process of distinguishing the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements this he believed to be the main goal of human psychological development now we delve into what Yung considered

the most important part of ourselves the unconscious here's where we encounter the Persona Shadow anima and animus which have have the most disturbing influence on the ego the Persona the Persona is known as a Conformity archetype it is an element of the personality which arises for reasons of adaptation or personal convenience if you have certain masks you put on in various situations that is a Persona in essence it conceals our real self presenting ourselves as someone different to who we really are as we please other people with our Persona it leaves our negative traits that

contradict our real elves forming our shadow the shadow Jung stated the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during an individual's lifetime the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning among the Shadow the enima and the Animas the most accessible and easiest to experience is the shadow since it can be retrieved from the content of the personal unconscious to be conscious of the Shadow there must be a considerable moral effort recognizing the dark aspects of one's personality

as real and present while some traits of One's Own Shadow can be recognized some offer greater resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence an individual who does not recognize psychological projection a defense mechanism in which the individual defense himself against the unconscious impulses denying their existence in himself while attributing them to to others will eventually create an illusory environment whereby he changes the world into the replica of his own unknown face the shadow plays an important role in balancing the overall psyche a weak adaptation of the Shadow results in a low level

of personality whereby the individual behaves like a passive victim of his shadow extremely worried with the opinions of others a walking Persona people who do not look at their Shadows directly project them onto other the qualities that we often cannot stand in others we have in ourselves and wish not to see but to truly grow as a person one must integrate their Shadow and balance it with her Persona it is possible for man to recognize the relative evil of his nature but it is rare for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil an

encounter with your Shadow may appear in dreams typically as a person of the same sex as you it depends on the living experience of each individual rather than being inher in the collective unconscious the disolution of the Persona and understanding one's own shadow is a central part of the process of individuation in terms of the story of Dr Jackal and Mr Hyde it must be Jackal The conscious personality who integrates the Shadow and not the other way around otherwise you will become the slave of your autonomous Shadow the integration of the Shadow marks the first

stage of the analytical process without it a recognition of Anima and anima is impossible however the acknowledgement of the Shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life anima and animus within the shadow there exist two contrasexual figures the anima and the Animus in every man's psyche there is an unconscious feminine aspect called the enima which is a personification of all feminine psychological Tendencies while in every woman's psyche there's an unconscious masculine an aspect called the Animus unlike the shadow which represents the personal unconscious through which its content can be made conscious the anima and

enimas are much further away from Consciousness and are seldom realized man's enima is characterized by the feminine arrows it is passive like a child seeking the protecting and nourishing Charmed circle of the mother while woman's Animas corresponds to the paternal logos the principle of rationality when man is integrating the enima it becomes the arrows giving way to a more caring figure when woman is integrating the Animas it becomes the logos giving wom a capacity for assertiveness and deliberation the enima appears in dreams visions and Fantasies taking on a personified form she is a spontaneous product

of the unconscious and not a substitute figure for the mother present in every man there are thoughts feelings and effects alive in us which we would never have believed possible this seems like utter fantasy to anyone who has not yet experienced it by themselves for a normal person knows what he thinks the recognition of the enima gives rise to a Triad the masculine subject the feminine subject and the Transcendent enema with a woman it gives rise to the Transcendent animus The Continuous integration of the contents of the Collective unconscious making them part of the self

through Psychotherapy introspection and having the moral fortitude to change one's own beliefs can have a considerable influence on ourselves and give us a much more solid foundation in our psyche helping us to overcome our daily struggles and become much more aware of who we truly are and that there are elements in our psyche beyond our control