Abstract
The notion of archetype, although already present in Western culture since ancient Greece, is associated to the name of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), who gave the concept both a universal and a psychodynamic connotation. Universal, because archetypes are the contents of the collective unconscious, which is the common unconscious substratum that connects every human. Psychodynamic, since archetypes are patterns of behavior, i.e., they regulate human behavior according to inborn schemata similar to instincts. Jung formalized the double nature of the archetype in 1946 and differentiated between archetype as such and archetypal image, the former being a “psychoid” factor inaccessible to consciousness while the latter can reach consciousness in the form of universal symbols.
This distinction makes the archetype an agent of inner and outer change that links together biology, psychology, and culture. When consciousness is torn between opposites, an archetypal image emerges to bridge the split, thus promoting a new conscious attitude. In the role of union of opposites from which a third is born, the archetype becomes a holder of potential and a catalyst of creativity on both a personal and a collective level.
This entry defines the notion of archetype, outlines its history, and presents the Jungian model of the psyche, including the dynamic notion of the unconscious from which stems the potential of the archetype.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Calvino, I. (1988). Six memos for the next millennium. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Edinger, E. F. (1972). Ego and archetype. Boulder: Shambhala.
Hogenson, G. (2019). The controversy around the concept of archetypes. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 64(5), 682–700.
Hogenson, G., Ramos, D., & Stevens, A. (2003). Debate: Psychology and biology in Cambridge 2001. In Proceedings of the fifteenth international congress for analytical psychology (pp. 367–377). Einsiedeln: Daimon Verlag.
Jacobi, J. (1999). Complex, archetype, symbol in the psychology of C.G. Jung (1st ed., p. 1925). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Jung, C. G. (1912). Symbols of transformation. Collected Works (CW) 5. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1953-1983. Revised edition of Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (1912), firstly translated in English as psychology of the unconscious (1916).
Jung, C. G. (1917). On the psychology of the unconscious, CW 7.
Jung, C. G. (1919). Instincts and the unconscious, CW 8. First published in the British Journal of Psychology (General Section) (London), X(1), 15–26.
Jung, C. G. (1936). The concept of the collective unconscious, CW 9,I.
Jung, C. G. (1938). Psychological aspects of the mother archetype, CW 9,I.
Jung, C. G. (1939). Conscious, unconscious, and individuation, CW 9,I.
Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle, CW 8.
Jung, C. G. (1954a). Archetypes of the collective unconscious, CW 9,I.
Jung, C. G. (1954b). On the nature of the psyche, CW 8. First published as “Der Geist der Psychologie,” Eranos-Jahrbuch 1946 (Zurich, 1947), pp. 385–490.
Jung, C. G. (1957). The transcendent function, CW 8.
Neumann, E. (1983). The great mother. Princeton: Princeton University Press. First Edition: 1955/1963 by the Bolligen Foundation.
Pauli, W. (1994). The influence of archetypal ideas on the scientific theories of Kepler. In C. P. Enz & K. von Meyenn (Eds.), Writings on physics and philosophy. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.
Shamdasani, S. (2003). Jung and the making of modern psychology. The dream of a science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Sacco German, B. (2021). Archetypes. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_92-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_92-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences