In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, referring to the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis. He believed that the concept of the collective unconscious helps to explain why similar themes occur in mythologies around the world. 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. The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.
Psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Lionel Corbett argues that the contemporary terms "autonomous psyche" or "objective psyche" are more commonly used in the practice of depth psychology rather than the traditional term of the "collective unconscious". 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).Introduction to Psychology, 5th edition Proponents suggest that it is borne out by findings of psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology.
Basic explanation The term "collective unconscious" first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious".Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, Cambridge Companion to Jung (2008), "Chronology" (pp. xxiii–xxxvii). According to the 1953 Collected Works editors, the 1916 essay was translated by M. Marsen from German into French and published as "La Structure de l'inconscient" in Archives de Psychologie XVI (1916); they state that the original German manuscript no longer exists. 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.Jung, Collected Works vol. 7 (1953), "The Structure of the Unconscious" (1916), ¶437–507 (pp. 263–292).
In "The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology" (November 1929), Jung wrote:
On October 19, 1936, Jung delivered a lecture "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" to the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London.Jung, Collected Works vol. 9.I (1959), "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" (1936), p. 42. Editors' note: "Originally given as a lecture to the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, on October 19, 1936, and published in the Hospital's Journal, XLIV (1936/37), 46–49, 64–66. The present version has been slightly revised by the author and edited in terminology." He said:
Jung 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".C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols (London 1978) p. 57 He credited Freud for developing his "primal horde" theory in Totem and Taboo and continued further with the idea of an archaic ancestor maintaining its influence in the minds of present-day humans. Every human being, he wrote, "however high his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche."Singer, Culture and the Collective Unconscious (1968), pp. 30–31. Quoting Jung, Collected Works vol. 10 (1964), "Archaic Man" (1931), ¶105 (p. 51).
As modern humans go through their process of individuation, moving out of the collective unconscious into mature selves, they establish a persona—which can be understood simply as that small portion of the collective psyche which they embody, perform, and identify with.Singer, Culture and the Collective Unconscious (1968), p. 122. "The contents which refuse to fit into this image which man tries to present to his world are either overlooked and forgotten, or repressed and denied. What is left is an arbitrary segment of collective psyche, which Jung has called the persona. The word persona is appropriate, since it originally meant the mask worn by an actor, signifying the role he played."
The collective unconscious exerts overwhelming influence on the minds of individuals. These effects of course vary widely, however, since they involve virtually every emotion and situation. At times, the collective unconscious can terrify, but it can also heal.James M. Glass, "The Philosopher and the Shaman: The Political Vision as Incantation", Political Theory 2.2, May 1974.
Archetypes
In an early definition of the term, Jung writes: "Archetypes are typical modes of apprehension, and wherever we meet with uniform and regularly recurring modes of apprehension we are dealing with an archetype, no matter whether its mythological character is recognized or not."Jung, Collected Works vol. 8 (1960), "Instinct and the Unconscious" (1919/1948), ¶280 (pp. 137–138). He traces the term back to Philo, Irenaeus, and the Corpus Hermeticum, which associate archetypes with divinity and the creation of the world, and notes the close relationship of Platonic ideas.Singer, Culture and the Collective Unconscious (1968), pp. 36–37. "Jung reminds us that the term 'archetype' occurs as early as Philo Judaeus, with reference to the Imago Dei (God-image) in man. It can also be found in Irenaeus, who says: 'The creator of the world did not fashion these things directly from himself but copied them from archetypes outside himself. In the Corpus Hermeticum, God is called 'archetypal light.'" Referring to Jung, Collected Works vol. 9.I (1959), "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype" (1938/1954), ¶149 (p. 75).
These archetypes dwell in a world beyond the chronology of a human lifespan, developing on an evolutionary timescale. Regarding the animus and anima, the male principle within the woman and the female principle within the man, Jung writes:
Jung also described archetypes as imprints of momentous or frequently recurring situations in the lengthy human past.Kevin Lu, "Jung, History and His Approach to the Psyche ", Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies 8.9 , 2012.
A complete list of archetypes cannot be made, nor can differences between archetypes be absolutely delineated.Shelburne, Mythos and Logos (1988) p. 63. "Any attempt to give an exhaustive list of the archetypes, however, would be a largely futile exercise since the archetypes tend to combine with each other and interchange qualities making it difficult to decide where one archetype stops and another begins. For example, qualities of the shadow archetype may be prominent in an archetypal image of the anima or animus. / One archetype may also appear in various distinct forms, thus raising the question whether four or five distinct archetypes should be said to be present or merely four or five forms of a single type. There would seem, then, to be no definitive decision procedure for determining the exact boundaries of an individual archetype." For example, the Eagle is a common archetype that may have a multiplicity of interpretations. It could mean the soul leaving the mortal body and connecting with the heavenly spheres, or it may mean that someone is sexually impotent, in that they have had their spiritual ego body engaged. In spite of this difficulty, Jungian analyst June Singer suggests a partial list of well-studied archetypes, listed in pairs of opposites:Singer, Culture and the Collective Unconscious (1968), p. 109. EgoShadowSacred progenitorTyrannical progenitorOld Wise ManTricksterAnimusAnimaMeaningAbsurdityCentralityDiffusionOrderChaosOppositionConjunctionTimeEternitySacredProfaneLightDarknessTransformationFixity
Jung made reference to contents of this category of the unconscious psyche as being similar to Levy-Bruhl's use of "collective representations", Hubert and Mauss's "categories of the imagination", and Adolf Bastian's "primordial thoughts". He also called archetypes "dominants" because of their profound influence on mental life.
Instincts Jung's exposition of the collective unconscious builds on the classic issue in psychology and biology regarding nature versus nurture. If we accept that nature, or heredity, has some influence on the individual psyche, we must examine the question of how this influence takes hold in the real world.Jung, Collected Works vol. 9.I (1959), "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" (1936), ¶92 (p. 44). "The hypothesis of the collective unconscious is, therefore, no more daring than to assume there are instincts. One admits readily that human activity is influenced to a high degree by instincts, quite apart from the rational motivations of the conscious mind. [...] The question is simply this: are there or are there not unconscious universal forms of this kind? If they exist, then there is a region of the psyche which one can call the collective unconscious."
On exactly one night in its entire lifetime, the yucca moth discovers pollen in the opened flowers of the yucca plant, forms some into a pellet, and then transports this pellet, with one of its eggs, to the pistil of another yucca plant. This activity cannot be "learned"; it makes more sense to describe the yucca moth as experiencing intuition about how to act.Jung, Collected Works vol. 8 (1960), "Instinct and the Unconscious" (1919/1948), ¶268–269 (pp. 131–132). Note: Jung refers to Pronuba yucasella, now apparently classified as Tegeticula yucasella. See also: "The Yucca and Its Moth", The Prairie Ecologist, 8 December 2010. Archetypes and instincts coexist in the collective unconscious as interdependent opposites, Jung would later clarify.Jung, Collected Works vol. 8 (1960), "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1947/1954), ¶406 (pp. 206–207). "Archetype and instinct are the most polar opposites imaginable, as can easily be seen when one compares a man who is ruled by his instinctual drives with a man who is seized by the spirit. But, just as between all opposites there obtains so close a bond that no position can be established or even thought of without its corresponding negation, so in this case also 'les extrêmes se touchent' [...] they subsist side by side as reflections in our own minds of the opposition that underlies all psychic energy." Whereas for most animals intuitive understandings completely intertwine with instinct, in humans the archetypes have become a separate register of mental phenomena.Shelburne, Mythos and Logos (1988) pp. 44–48.
Humans experience five main types of instinct, wrote Jung: hunger, sexuality, activity, reflection, and creativity. These instincts, listed in order of increasing abstraction, elicit and constrain human behavior, but also leave room for freedom in their implementation and especially in their interplay. Even a simple hungry feeling can lead to many different responses, including metaphorical sublimation.Jung, Collected Works vol. 8 (1960), "Instinct and the Unconscious" (1936/1942), ¶235–246 (pp. 115–118). These instincts could be compared to the "drives" discussed in psychoanalysis and other domains of psychology.Singer, Culture and the Collective Unconscious (1968), p. 96. Several readers of Jung have observed that in his treatment of the collective unconscious, Jung suggests an unusual mixture of primordial, "lower" forces, and spiritual, "higher" forces.Harry T. Hunt, "A collective unconscious reconsidered: Jung's archetypal imagination in the light of contemporary psychology and social science"; Journal of Analytical Psychology 57, 2012.
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