Carl Jung: An Overview
Carl Jung was a medicine student who became good friends with Freud. As the two worked together, Jung quickly became fascinated with the unconscious mind, thanks to Freud's influence. Jung wished to further understand the human mind through dreams, myth, art, and philosophy. Initially, Freud viewed Jung as his protégé, however, their friendship began to dissolve as Jung started to develop his own ideas that diverged from Freud's views. Eventually, Jung began to separate from Freudian theory; he rejected Freud's emphasis on sex as the sole source of behavior motivation. During this period, Jung became increasingly interested in dreams and symbols, later using this learning as the basis for his theories of psychology.
Personal and Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung agreed with Freud on the basis that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence, but to Jung the unconscious contained more than our repressed thoughts and feelings. Jung believed we also had a collective unconscious, a common reservoir of images derived from our species’ universal experiences. To Jung, the collective unconscious explains why spiritual concerns are deeply rooted and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images, such as mother as a symbol of nurture. Jung also believed in the personal unconscious that consisted of experiences unique to each individual.
Archetypes: Impacting Personality Development
According to Jung, archetypes are primordial images inherited from our ancestors. Jung claimed that archetypes are part of the collective unconscious, available to all humans. These archetypes are unlearned and they influence how humans experience certain things. Jung believed that all powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes. Jung backed his theory with the attachment infants have to their mothers, the inevitable fear of the dark seen in young children, and how images such as the sun, moon, wise old man, angels, and evil all seem to be predominant themes throughout history. Jung identified four major archetypes. The first he identified was the self, which he said was an archetype that represents the unification of the unconsciousness and consciousness in individuals. According to Jung, the creation of the self occurs through a process known as individuation. The second major archetype Jung identified was the shadow, which contains sex and life instincts. Jung believed the shadow existed as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts and shortcomings.The shadow archetype is generally defined as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos, and the unknown. Jung believed that all individuals possessed the shadow archetype, even though some rejected this and projected it onto others. The third major archetype Jung identified was the anima or animus, which are the female and male images in the opposite sex's psyche. To Jung, this archetype represented the "true self" instead of the image people presented to others and is considered the primary of communication with the collective unconscious. The fourth and final major archetype identified by Jung was the persona, which is how individuals present themselves to the world. Meaning "mask" in Latin, the persona describes all the different social masks individuals wear when they are in different groups and situations. Jung explained the persona was in place to protect the ego from negative images.