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Archetype Defined
Those of us who have been influenced by the thinking of the great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung have great reason to hope that the external deficiencies we have encountered in the world as would-be men (and women) can be corrected. And we have not only hope but actual experience as clinicians and as individuals of inner resources not imagined by psychology before Jung. It is our experience that deep within every human are blueprints, what we can also call "hard wiring," for the calm and positive mature masculine. Jungians refer to these masculine potentials as archetypes, or "primordial images."
Jung and his successors have found that on the level of the deep unconscious the psyche of every person is grounded in what Jung called the "collective unconscious," made up of instinctual patterns and energy configurations probably inherited genetically throughout the generations of our species. These archetypes provide the very foundations of our behaviors - our thinking, our feeling, and our characteristic human reactions. They are the image makers that artists and poets and religious prophets are so close to. Jung related them directly to the instincts in other animals.
Most of us are familiar with the fact that baby ducks soon after they are hatched attach themselves to whomever or whatever is walking by at the time. This phenomenon is called imprinting. It means that the newly hatched duckling is wired for "mother," or "caretaker." It doesn't have to learn - from the outside, as it were - what a caretaker is. The archetype for caretaker comes on line shortly after the duckling comes into the world. Unfortunately, however, the "mother" the duckling meets in those first moments may not be adequate to the task of taking care of it. Nonetheless, although those in the outer world may not live up to the instinctual expectation (they may not even be ducks!), the archetype for caretaker forms the duckling's behavior.
In a similar way, human beings are wired for "mother" and "father" and many other human relationships, as well as all forms of the human experience of the world. And though those in the outer world may not live up to the archetypal expectation, the archetype is nonetheless present. It is constant and universal in all of us. We, like the duckling that mistakes a cat for its mother, mistake our actual parents for the ideal patterns and potentials within us.
These blueprints appear to be great in number, and they manifest themselves as both male and female. There are archetypes that pattern the thoughts and feelings and relationships of women, and there are archetypes that pattern the thoughts and feelings and relationships of men. In addition, Jungians have found that in every man there is a feminine subpersonality called the Anima, made up of the feminine archetypes. And in every women there is a masculine subpersonality called the Animus, made up of the masculine archetypes. All human beings can access the archetypes, to a greater or lesser degree. We do this, in fact, in our interrelating with one another.
Continue at Archetypal Structures
References:
The Quartet of Books: The King Within, The Warrior Within, The Magician Within, The Lover Within.
Jung and his successors have found that on the level of the deep unconscious the psyche of every person is grounded in what Jung called the "collective unconscious," made up of instinctual patterns and energy configurations probably inherited genetically throughout the generations of our species. These archetypes provide the very foundations of our behaviors - our thinking, our feeling, and our characteristic human reactions. They are the image makers that artists and poets and religious prophets are so close to. Jung related them directly to the instincts in other animals.
Most of us are familiar with the fact that baby ducks soon after they are hatched attach themselves to whomever or whatever is walking by at the time. This phenomenon is called imprinting. It means that the newly hatched duckling is wired for "mother," or "caretaker." It doesn't have to learn - from the outside, as it were - what a caretaker is. The archetype for caretaker comes on line shortly after the duckling comes into the world. Unfortunately, however, the "mother" the duckling meets in those first moments may not be adequate to the task of taking care of it. Nonetheless, although those in the outer world may not live up to the instinctual expectation (they may not even be ducks!), the archetype for caretaker forms the duckling's behavior.
In a similar way, human beings are wired for "mother" and "father" and many other human relationships, as well as all forms of the human experience of the world. And though those in the outer world may not live up to the archetypal expectation, the archetype is nonetheless present. It is constant and universal in all of us. We, like the duckling that mistakes a cat for its mother, mistake our actual parents for the ideal patterns and potentials within us.
These blueprints appear to be great in number, and they manifest themselves as both male and female. There are archetypes that pattern the thoughts and feelings and relationships of women, and there are archetypes that pattern the thoughts and feelings and relationships of men. In addition, Jungians have found that in every man there is a feminine subpersonality called the Anima, made up of the feminine archetypes. And in every women there is a masculine subpersonality called the Animus, made up of the masculine archetypes. All human beings can access the archetypes, to a greater or lesser degree. We do this, in fact, in our interrelating with one another.
Continue at Archetypal Structures
References:
The Quartet of Books: The King Within, The Warrior Within, The Magician Within, The Lover Within.
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