The Collective Unconscious Flashcards
Jung’s definition
‘We have to distinguish between a personal unconscious and an impersonal or transpersonal unconscious.
We speak of the latter also as the collective unconscious, because it is detached from anything personal and is entirely universal, because its contents can be found everywhere, which is naturally not the case with the personal contents.
Basic primitive images common to different periods and cultures
Jung notices and names these basic manifestations as demons, Earth Mothers, sages and wild men all these cropping up in sessions with his patients.
He called these images ‘archetypes’ - meaning original impressions or patterns.
He concluded that they must be part of the unconscious mind that preexists any individual’s personal experience and that they are part of the ‘collective unconscious’.
The collective unconscious
Does not refer to any sort of group mind (collective), but to a piece of each individual psych that inherits the collective experiences and impression of ancestral humanity it is a unique stand-alone memory tag that nevertheless, shares all of humanity’s history.
Your persona or personality type comprises of…
Persona - the ‘self’ shown to the world
The shadow aspect (the repressed self)
Personal unconscious, the ‘self’ you’ve forgotten about
The shadow aspect…What is Jung’s shadow Theory?
Enter the Shadow. This is the part of our unconscious mind that Jung believed to hold all the things about ourselves that we repress, whether because it is evil, socially unacceptable, harmful to others, or detrimental to our own health.
The two famous and particular archetypal images.
- Man-as-such (animus)
- Woman-as-such (anima)
Each person’s unconscious is dominated by those traits and images excluded from the conscious self.
Anima is the most powerful image in a man’s unconscious and the animus the most powerful in a woman’s.
Thus we are physically hermaphroditic, and the harder we try to repress our hidden half the more likely it is to inflict us with psychological conflicts.
Jung believed that free association
Would uncover for the patient those repressed, unconscious feelings and images that were so powerful and potentially threatening.
And enable us to achieve a mentally healthy state.
Free association- Free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis and other forms of psychotherapy to help patients learn more about their thoughts and feelings. It involves encouraging patients to express whatever thoughts come to mind without censorship or selection, allowing unconscious material to surface, and helping patients discharge feelings that may have given this material too much control over them
