Basic archetypes in Jungian analysis.
Archetype - from the Greek. "arche" - the beginning and "typos" - the image - thus, these are powerful mental prototypes hidden in the depths of the unconscious, innate universal ideas, the original models of perception, thinking, experiencing. This is a kind of primary ideas about the world and life, which do not depend on the level of knowledge gained. They form the structure of the worldview and are passed down from generation to generation.
The collective unconscious as a sediment left by experience and at the same time as some of it, experience, is a priori an image of the world that has already been formed in time immemorial. “The only possibility is to recognize the irrational as a necessary – because it is always present – mental function and take its content not for concrete (that would be a step backwards!), but for mental realities, realities, insofar as they are things effective, i.e. reality."
These are the ruling forces, the gods, i.e. images of dominating laws and principles of general regularities, to which the sequence of images is subject, the soul experiencing everything again and again.
Archetypes can be seen as the result and reflection of experiences that have taken place; but in the same way they are the factors that serve as the causes of experiences.
The knowledge of archetypes is a significant step forward. The magical or demonic action caused by the neighbor disappears due to the fact that the disturbing feeling is reduced to a certain amount of the collective unconscious.
During the period of a life turn, special attention should be paid to the images of the collective unconscious, since at such moments it is a source from which one can draw instructions for solving the problem. From the conscious processing of these data, a transcendental function can result, as the formation of perception mediated by archetypes.
Jung described many archetypes, giving them conditional and very peculiar, but precise names: Self, Person, Shadow, Anima, Animus, Mother, Child, Sun, Old Sage, Hero, God, Death ...
The transcendental function does not act aimlessly, but leads to the revelation of the essential core of man. At the first consideration, it is a purely natural process, which under certain circumstances proceeds without the knowledge and assistance of the individual and can even forcibly realize itself in spite of his opposition. The meaning and purpose of this process is the implementation of the (originally embedded in the embryo) personality in all its aspects. It is the restoration and deployment of the original, potential wholeness. The symbols that the unconscious uses for this are nothing more than the images that humanity has long used to express integrity, completeness, perfection, as a rule, these are symbols - quaternary and circle. Jung calls this process the process of individuation.
A person
Our person is the outward manifestation of what we present to the world. This is the character we find acceptable; through it we interact with others. Personality includes our social roles, the clothes we wear, and our individual ways of expressing ourselves. The term persona comes from Latin, meaning "mask" or "false face". The mask was worn by actors in ancient Rome. In order to function socially, we play a role using the techniques specific to that role. Even when we cannot adapt to something, our roles continue to work. These are roles that express refusal.
A person has both negative and positive aspects. A dominant person can overwhelm a person. Those who identify with a persona see themselves mostly within the boundaries of their specific social roles. Jung called the persona a "coherent archetype". As part of its positive function, it shields the ego and psyche from the various social forces and attitudes that interfere with them. In addition, the persona is a valuable tool for communication. In ancient drama, the unreliability of a person was conveyed through distorted masks, informing about the personality and the role played by the actor. The persona can be decisive in our positive development. When we start to play the main role, our ego, little by little, tends to identify with it. This process is fundamental in personal development.
The process, however, is not always positive. As the ego identifies with the persona, people begin to believe that they are what they claim to be. According to Jung, we ultimately extract this identification in order to explore, in the course of self-realization, or individuation, what we are. A small group of other people around us contain problems of their personalities, due to cultural biases and social cuts of their personas.
The persona can be expressed through the objects we use to cover our body (clothes or a blanket) and through the tools of our activity (a shovel or a briefcase). Thus, ordinary objects become symbols of a person's identification. The term status symbol (car, house or diploma) expresses society's understanding of the importance of image. All of these symbols can be found in dreams as representations of a person. For example, someone with a strong personality might appear in a dream as being overdressed or cramped with too much clothing. A person with a weak persona may appear naked or in revealing clothing. One of the possible expressions of an inadequate person may be a figure without skin.
Shadow
The shadow is an archetypal form, composed of material repressed by consciousness; its content includes those tendencies, desires, memories and experiences that are cut off by a person as incompatible with the person and contrary to social standards and ideals. The shadow contains all the negative tendencies that a person wants to reject, including animal instincts, as well as undeveloped positive and negative traits.
“How can I be real without casting a shadow? If I want to be whole, I must also have a dark side; realizing my shadow, I remember once again that I am a human being like any other.”
The stronger our persona becomes, the more we identify with it and the more we reject other parts of ourselves. The shadow represents that which we intend to subordinate in our personality, and even that which we neglect and never develop in ourselves. In dreams, the shadow figure may appear as an animal, a dwarf, a vagabond, or any other subordinate figure.
In his writings on repression and neurosis, Freud primarily dealt with aspects of what Jung calls the shadow. Jung found that repressed material is organized and structured around a shadow that becomes literally the negative self, or the shadow of the ego. The shadow often appears in the dream experience as a dark, primitive, hostile or frightening figure, since the content of the shadow is forcibly repressed from consciousness and antagonistic to the conscious point of view. If the material from the shadow returns to consciousness, it loses many of its primitive and frightening features. The shadow is most dangerous when unrecognizable. In this case, a person projects his unwanted features onto others or is suppressed by a shadow without understanding it. The images of the enemy, the devil, or the concept of original sin are aspects of the shadow archetype. When more of the shadow material becomes conscious, the lesser cannot dominate. But the shadow is an integral part of our nature and can never be completely destroyed. The person who pretends to have no shadow turns out to be not a complex person, but a two-dimensional caricature, denying the mixture of good and bad that is inevitably present in all of us.
Anima and animus
Jung considered it obvious that an unconscious structure is an integral part of the person, and he called it the anima in men and the animus in women. This basic mental structure serves as the focus of all psychological material that is not consistent with how a person perceives himself as a man or a woman. Thus, insofar as a woman consciously imagines herself within the boundaries of what is characteristic of women, to the extent that her animus will include those unknown tendencies and experiences that she considers characteristic of men.
For a woman, the process of psychological development entails the beginning of a dialogue between her ego and animus. The animus may be pathologically dominant due to identification with archetypal figures (such as an enchanted prince, a romantic poet, a phantom lover, or a marauding pirate) and/or an extremely strong attachment to the father.
The animus is viewed by Jung as a separate entity. Once the animus and its influence on the individual is realized, the animus assumes the role of a link between the conscious and the unconscious until the latter is gradually integrated into the self. Jung considers the traits of this union of opposites (in this case, masculine and feminine) as the main determinant of a person's fulfillment of the female role.
A similar process occurs between the anima and the masculine ego in the male. As long as our anima or animus is unconscious, not accepted as part of our self, we will tend to project it onto people of the opposite sex:
“Every man carries within himself the eternal image of a woman, not the image of this or that particular woman, but a certain feminine image. This image is ... the imprint or "archetype" of the experience of all female ancestors, the repository, so to speak, of all impressions ever acquired by women.
... Since this image is unconscious, it is always unconsciously projected onto a loved one, and this is one of the main reasons for craving or aversion.
According to Jung, the parent of the opposite sex has a fundamental influence on the development of the child's anima or animus. All relationships with objects of the opposite sex, including parents, are strongly influenced by anima or animus fantasies. This archetype is one of the most influential regulators of behavior. He appears in dreams and fantasies as characters of the opposite sex and functions as the most important intermediary between the processes of consciousness and the unconscious. It is focused primarily on internal processes, just as the person is focused on external ones. This is the source of projections, the source of image creation and access to creativity. (The creative influence of the anima can be seen in the example of artists who painted their muses as goddesses.) Jung also called this archetype "the image of the soul." Since it is able to bring us into contact with the forces of our unconscious, it is often the key to unlocking our creativity.
Self
The self is the most important and difficult to understand archetype. Jung called the self the main archetype, the archetype of the psychological structure and integrity of the personality. The self is the archetype of centeredness. This is the unity of consciousness and the unconscious, which embodies the harmony and balance of various opposite elements of the psyche. The Self determines the functioning of the whole psyche by the method of integration. According to Jung, "consciousness and the unconscious are not necessarily opposed to each other, they complement each other to a wholeness that is the self." Jung discovered the archetype of the self only after his research on other personality structures.
“The archetype of man is the self. The Self is all-encompassing. God is a circle whose center is everywhere and has no boundaries.
The Self is depicted in dreams and images either impersonally (as a circle, mandala, crystal, stone) or personified (as a royal couple, a divine child, or other symbols of divinity). Great spiritual teachers such as Christ, Mohammed and Buddha are also symbols of the self. These are symbols of integrity, unity, reconciliation of opposites and dynamic balance - the goals of the process of individuation. Jung explains the function of the self this way:
“The ego receives its light from the self. We know something about the self, but still we do not know about it ... Despite the fact that we receive the light of consciousness from the self and know about the source that illuminates us, we do not know whether it is stored precisely in consciousness ... If the self was entirely derivable from experience, it would be limited to experience, while in reality this experience is unlimited and endless ... If I were alone with my self, I would know about everything, speak Sanskrit, read cuneiform, know about prehistoric events, would be familiar with life on other planets, etc.”
The self is a deep inner guiding factor that may seem easily distinguishable from consciousness and ego, if not alien to them. "The self is not only the center, but also the periphery, which encompasses both consciousness and the unconscious: it is the center of everything, just as the ego is the center of consciousness." The self may manifest itself primarily in dreams as a small, insignificant image. The self in most people is undeveloped and they are unaware of it. The development of the self does not mean the disappearance of the ego. The ego remains the center of consciousness, an important structure of the psyche. It becomes connected to the self through a long, hard work of understanding and accepting unconscious processes.
