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Grappling with Archetypes

© Bonnie McCarson

In the text of the world literature course I teach, the term "archetype" is defined as "a universal pattern." That definition is a gross oversimplification of what Jung meant when he used the word "archetype." There is, however, no very simple definition of what he did mean. Various writers, including Jung himself, have devoted considerable time to the subject. His writings on the topic are found in Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, one volume of his Collected Works. Other writers, including June Singer and Anthony Storr, have sought to elucidate him thoughts on the topic.

Jung's concept of archetypes began to come to him before his break with Freud, while he was studying Freud's work. It was, however, not a one-time realization, but a concept he continued to study and expound upon throughout his career. In so short a space as this article we can only hope to get a glimpse of what Jung meant by archetype and the various archetypes that are included in the whole of Jungian literature.

The most succinct and comprehensible explanation I have found in any one place is that of Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth. When asked by Bill Moyers "What are archetypes?" Campbell replied:

They are elementary ideas, what could be called "ground" ideas. These ideas Jung spoke of as archetypes of the unconscious. Archetype of the unconscious means it comes from below. The difference between the Jungian archetypes of the unconscious and Freud's complexes is that the archetypes of the unconscious are manifestations of the organs of the body and their powers. Archetypes are biologically grounded.

He goes on to say that, "All over the world and at different times of human history, these archetypes, or elementary ideas, have appeared in different costumes." (Campbell, pp.51-52)

Jung in his work became increasingly aware of what Campbell called the "different costumes" and the elementary ideas within them. In Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, he says, "Archetypes, so far as we can observe and explain them at all, manifest themselves only through their ability to organize images and ideas, and this is always an unconscious process which cannot be detected until afterwards." (Jung, par. 440)

In the sense that the archetype organizes images and ideas, it is a universal pattern. That is why archetypal motifs can be studied in myths and folktales. But they also occur in our personal dreams and images, a source Jung studied in depth. It is there the instinctual, biological part of the archetype is manifest. It is not within our conscious control, yet it tends to organize our personal content around archetypal themes, which we only recognize as we go back and look at the dreams, or the images which come to us in active imagination. It is more like "form," which only becomes concrete when we see the form embodied in our personal content.