Glossary: Archetypes

[The archetype is] a dynamism which makes itself felt in the numinosity and fascinating power of the archetypal image.

Psychologically… the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.

- "On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414 & 415


The archetype is the spiritual/mental aspect of a universal symbol; it is the “primary structural element” of the human psyche. Primordial images. Archetypes live in the collective unconscious and are passed down the generations along with the physical body and it's instincts. They’re deep, invisible, universal psychic structures made up of image and emotion and they're the roots of religion and myth. Archetypes live in the unconscious, but their existence and effect can be deduced from dreams, religion, and personal experience. When an archetype has become activated in this way we say it has “constellated,” and the specific image of the archetype is called an “archetypal image.”

Jung believed that archetypes are the “spiritual” end of the instinct, that they’re the psychic equivalent of instincts (e.g. a woman may experience the mother archetype either as a bodily instinct of nurturing and protection, or as a dream or vision of The Great Mother.) Other examples of archetypes are the classic Jungian archetypes (shadow, anima/us, Wise Old Woman/Man, etc.); universal archetypes that appear across cultures (the maiden, the hero, the child, the trickster); and animal and other non-personal archetypes (birds, wind, flood, death, rebirth). As archetypes and instincts are two ends of the same phenomena, they are deeply connected; anything done to one side affects the other as well. Suppress an archetype and it will make an appearance in the instinctive end, and vice versa.

Archetypes also often make their presence known by sneaking up on us and taking over the ego during possession; this happens automatically and unconsciously, without us even being aware of it. Neuroses are often caused by refusing to confront an archetype which is trying to make it's way into consciousness; this often manifests in the instinctive realm. Although archetypes can cause great problems for individuals, they are, at the same time, the means through which we achieve individuation, as well as being the bridge to the Unus Mundus.

Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain structure - indeed they are its psychic aspect. They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation. They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche… that portion through which the psyche is attached to nature.

- "Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 53.

The dynamism of instinct is lodged as it were in the infra-red part of the spectrum, whereas the instinctual image lies in the ultra-violet part... The realization and assimilation of instinct never take place at the red end, i.e., by absorption into the instinctual sphere, but only through integration of the image which signifies and at the same time evokes the instinct, although in a form quite different from the one we meet on the biological level.

- "On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.

We can never legitimately cut loose from our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing suicide. If we cannot deny the archetypes or otherwise neutralize them, we are confronted, at every new stage in the differentiation of consciousness to which civilization attains, with the task of finding a new interpretation appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists

- "The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267.


Link:
Jungian archetypes