1/5/2024 0 Comments Collective unconsciousJung linked the collective unconscious to "what Freud called 'archaic remnants' – mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in the individual's own life and which seem to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind". It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. My thesis then, is as follows: in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. On October 19, 1936, Jung delivered a lecture "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" to the Abernethian Society at St. It is the matrix of all conscious psychic occurrences, and hence it exerts an influence that compromises the freedom of consciousness in the highest degree, since it is continually striving to lead all conscious processes back into the old paths. The collective unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings. On the contrary, it is in the highest degree influenced by inherited presuppositions, quite apart from the unavoidable influences exerted upon it by the environment. The existence of the collective unconscious means that individual consciousness is anything but a tabula rasa and is not immune to predetermining influences. Together they make up that psychic stratum which has been called the collective unconscious. These "primordial images" or "archetypes," as I have called them, belong to the basic stock of the unconscious psyche and cannot be explained as personal acquisitions. In "The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology" (November 1929), Jung wrote:Īnd the essential thing, psychologically, is that in dreams, fantasies, and other exceptional states of mind the most far-fetched mythological motifs and symbols can appear autochthonously at any time, often, apparently, as the result of particular influences, traditions, and excitations working on the individual, but more often without any sign of them. This essay distinguishes between the "personal", Freudian unconscious, filled with sexual fantasies and repressed images, and the "collective" unconscious encompassing the soul of humanity at large. The term "collective unconscious" first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious". Proponents suggest that it is borne out by findings of psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. Critics of the collective unconscious concept have called it unscientific and fatalistic, or otherwise very difficult to test scientifically (due to the mystical aspect of the collective unconscious). Psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Lionel Corbett argue that the contemporary terms "autonomous psyche" or "objective psyche" are more commonly used today in the practice of depth psychology rather than the traditional term of the "collective unconscious". The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious. He argued that the collective unconscious had a profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out its symbols and clothed them in meaning through their experiences. He believed that the concept of the collective unconscious helps to explain why similar themes occur in mythologies around the world. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populated by instincts, as well as by archetypes: ancient primal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, and the Tree of Life. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. Collective unconscious ( German: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts.
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