dispersion theory and collective unconscious

This book was begun at a time when the threat of an unparalleled disaster hung over the heads of humanity-when a generation only just recuperating from the trauma [3] Proponents suggest that it is borne out by findings of psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. The form of the world into which [a person] is born is already inborn in him, as a virtual image (Jung, 1953, p. 188). [56], Although civilization leads people to disavow their links with the mythological world of uncivilized societies, Jung argued that aspects of the primitive unconscious would nevertheless reassert themselves in the form of superstitions, everyday practices, and unquestioned traditions such as the Christmas tree. He got into his neurosis through the . This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/science/collective-unconscious, The Skeptic's Dictionary - Collective unconscious. The Collective Unconscious Vs. Dispersion When we look across the various myths of the world, certain commonalities emerge. He concluded that the patient's vision and the ancient Liturgy arose from the same source in the collective unconscious. Simply Scholar Ltd - All rights reserved, On The Relation Of Analytical Psychology To Poetic Art 1, Are archetypes transmitted more by culture than biology? However, more important than isolated tendencies are those aspects of the collective unconscious that have developed into separate sub-systems of the personality. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. [70][71] (Conversely, religious critics including Martin Buber accused Jung of wrongly placing psychology above transcendental factors in explaining human experience. The collective unconscious goes beyond cultural barriers of human beings and presents a commonality to all humans. [24] 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. Jung, C. G. (1933). Collective unconscious refers to the shared mental concepts of us and our ancestors. New York: Harcourt Brace. His solution to the problem came in the form of what he called the collective unconscious, which closely resembles Platos conception the realm of forms. Born in Switzerland in 1875, Carl Jung founded the school of analytical psychology. We are in constant telepathic contact with the world outside ourselves and are influenced by everything humanity has experienced . Essays on the psychology of the unconscious. "[38][35] Still better evidence, he felt, came when patients described complex images and narratives with obscure mythological parallels. Jung was convinced that the similarity and universality of world religions pointed to religion as a manifestation of the collective unconscious. He also called archetypes "dominants" because of their profound influence on mental life. Because all people have families, encounter plants and animals, and experience night and day, it should come as no surprise that they develop basic mental structures around these phenomena. [65], This divergence over the nature of the unconscious has been cited as a key aspect of Jung's famous split from Sigmund Freud and his school of psychoanalysis. In "The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology" (November 1929), Jung wrote: And 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. The collective unconscious is supposedly transmitted through brain structures and is the deepest layer of the psyche. [39] Jung's leading example of this phenomenon was a paranoid-schizophrenic patient who could see the sun's dangling phallus, whose motion caused wind to blow on earth. It is the approach used by Joseph Campbell in his first important work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, a work that has influenced a generation of screen writers to this day, including one George Lucas. [12][21] Whereas for most animals intuitive understandings completely intertwine with instinct, in humans the archetypes have become a separate register of mental phenomena. They were innate responses to stimuli found in all human societies for thousands of years, such as babies, old people, heros, and maidens. ", Niesser, Arthur. In the interpretation of analytical psychologist Mary Williams, a patient who understands the impact of the archetype can help to dissociate the underlying symbol from the real person who embodies the symbol for the patient. [27] These archetypes, a special focus of Jung's work, become autonomous personalities within an individual psyche. [62][63], Jung contrasted the collective unconscious with the personal unconscious, the unique aspects of an individual study which Jung says constitute the focus of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. He was the first to distinguish the two major attitudes or orientations of personality extroversion and introversion (Jung, 1923). Simply Psychology's content is for informational and educational purposes only. The anima/animus is the mirror image of our biological sex, that is, the unconscious feminine side in males and the masculine tendencies in women. Some cultures may split this archetype up; so the womb may express itself as Mary, Mother of Christ (or more recently via Dan Brown as Mary Magdaline, bride of Christ), or in devouring images as seen in depictions of females as vampires, succubi or witches (not to be confused with Wiccans). Harry T. Hunt, "A collective unconscious reconsidered: Jung's archetypal imagination in the light of contemporary psychology and social science"; Claire Douglas, "The historical context of analytical psychology", in Young-Eisendrath & Dawson (eds.). Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general. Collective unconscious ( German: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. "Neuroscience and Jung's Model of the Psyche: A Close Fit" (, Rosen, D. H.; S. M. Smith; H. L. Huston; & G. Gonzalez. It can be attached to a rock, a cave, a tree, a spring, a deep well, or to various vessels such as the baptismal font, or to vessel-shaped flowers like the rose or the lotus. ", Brown, Jeffrey M., & Terence P. Hannigan. [17] For example, the Eagle is a common archetype that may have a multiplicity of interpretations. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 57(2), 223-246. 9, Part 1. Rather than being seen as purely biological, more recent research suggests that archetypes emerge directly from our experiences and are reflections of linguistic or cultural characteristics (Young-Eisendrath, 1995). You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. collective unconscious, term introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain. [26], Jung considered that 'the shadow' and the anima and animus differ from the other archetypes in the fact that their content is more directly related to the individual's personal situation'. So, to end by quoting my favorite trickster rabbit, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion: A New Abridgement from the Second and Third Editions (Oxford Worlds Classics), The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell). So which is it? Jung, C. G. (1948). II. However, by far the most important difference between Jung and Freud is Jungs notion of the collective (or transpersonal) unconscious. J Psychiatr Res. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of a collection of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and is shared by all human beings due to ancestralexperience. 2015;63:1-9. doi:10.1016/j.psychires.2015.02.021, Kim C. Carl Gustav Jung and Granville Stanley Hall on religious experience. He found that although the images did not elicit significantly different responses to questions about whether they were "interesting" or "pleasant", but did provoke highly significant differences in response to the statement: "If I were to keep this image with me forever, I would be". (2018, May 21). The collective consciousness informs our sense of belonging and identity, and our behavior. The psyche of a woman contains masculine aspects (the animus archetype), and the psyche of a man contains feminine aspects (the anima archetype). This chapter provides an overview of the seminal works on collective consciousness in sociology. These universal predispositions stem from our ancestral past. 2014;6(3):227-242. doi:10.1080/19409052.2014.921226, Dinan TG, Stilling RM, Stanton C, Cryan JF. praecox, there is disease. Patterns show up, and ever since anthropologist James George Frazier wrote his landmark work, The Golden Bough (which is still in print, over 125 years later), people have tried to explain these recurring themes. In: Jung, C., Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. This is passed on through heredity. Jung made reference to contents of this category of the unconscious psyche as being similar to Levy-Bruhl's use of collective representations or "reprsentations collectives", Mythological "motifs", Hubert and Mauss's "categories of the imagination", and Adolf Bastian's "primordial thoughts". Jung's exposition of the collective unconscious builds on the classic issue in psychology and biology regarding nature versus nurture. [40], Going beyond the individual mind, Jung believed that "the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious". Jung worked with Sigmund Freud, another prominent psychologist during that time. D. A G. Cook, "Jung" in Richard L. Gregory, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, Jung, History and His Approach to the Psyche, An Empirical Test of Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious (Archetypal) Memory, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, The Concept of the Collective Unconscious, We Archipelago: A Productive Reaction to the Collective Unconscious, in a Conscious State, Emile Durkheim and C. G. Jung: Structuring a Transpersonal Sociology of Religion, The Internet as a Tool for Studying the Collective Unconscious, Empirical Study of Associations Between Symbols and Their Meanings: Evidence of Collective Unconscious (Archetypal) Memory, Unveiling the Unconscious: The Influence of Jungian Psychology on Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, C. G. Jung's Theory of the Collective Unconscious: A Rational Reconstruction, Society, Spirit & Ritual: Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscious - Part II, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collective_unconscious&oldid=1132515445. Regarding the animus and anima, the male principle within the woman and the female principle within the man, Jung writes: They evidently live and function in the deeper layers of the unconscious, especially in that phylogenetic substratum which I have called the collective unconscious. Kali who devours is also Mother Kali, who nurtures. Using data from the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism and a jury of evaluators, Rosen et al. 2 Reviews. This is the animal side of our personality (like the id in Freud). 10 minutes. Sometimes referred to as the "objective psyche," the collective conscious refers to the idea that a segment of the deepest unconscious mind is genetically inherited and not shaped by personal experience. Weve moved for resources, weve moved for trade, weve moved for conquest, weve moved for sex, weve moved for love. Thats where a model based on dispersion makes sense. Many things arousing devotion or feelings of awe, as for instance the Church, university, city or country, heaven, earth, the woods, the sea or any still waters, matter even, the underworld and the moon, can be mother-symbols. It was also what separated him from the theories and ultimately friendship - of Sigmund Freud. Int J Jungian Studies. This tension between collective unconscious and collective consciousness corresponds roughly to the "everlasting cosmic tug of war between good and evil" and has worsened in the time of the mass man. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and give definite form to certain psychic contents." [5] Method The technique of engaging the collective unconscious in psychotherapy. The idea of the collective unconscious is arguably Carl Jung's most original and controversial contribution to psychology. The personal unconscious consists of everything subliminal, forgotten, and repressed in an individual's life. Two main theories of their existence are Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and the dispersion theory. With understanding of multiple archetypes & symbols available to us, which are time & again exposed through our behavior, beliefs, dreams etc. Conversely, a symbolic interpretation of the collective unconscious is thought to have some scientific grounding because of the belief that all humans share certain behavioral dispositions. Ernest Jones (Freuds biographer) tells that Jung descended into a pseudo-philosophy out of which he never emerged and to many his ideas look more like New Age mystical speculation than a scientific contribution to psychology. [36] The most obvious patterns applied to the patient's parents: "Nobody knows better than the psychotherapist that the mythologizing of the parents is often pursued far into adulthood and is given up only with the greatest resistance. Every human being, he wrote, "however high his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. 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. "Psychic conflicts in a child. [59], Jung called the UFO phenomenon a "living myth", a legend in the process of consolidation. Why do these stories change? These elements appeared even in patients who were probably not exposed to the original story. www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html. 2nd ed., Princeton University Press, 1968. In Jungian psychology, these archetypes represent universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious. While he did praise The Hero With A Thousand Faces, it was too Jungian, too archetypal, for his tastes. 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. According to Jung's teachings, the collective unconscious is common to all human beings. and dreams. Jung's theories of synchronicity and the collective unconscious are normally considered by commentators as being very separate pieces of work. ", This page was last edited on 9 January 2023, at 06:35. Percival charges Jung with excessive determinism and writes: "He could not countenance the possibility that people sometimes create ideas that cannot be predicted, even in principle." Marie-Louise von Franz accepted that "it is naturally very tempting to identify the hypothesis of the collective unconscious historically and regressively with the ancient idea of an all-extensive world-soul. The many predetermined scripts for animal behavior are called innate releasing mechanisms. This notion was originally defined by psychoanalyst Carl Jung. the part of the unconscious that, according to Carl Jung, is common to all humankind and contains the inherited accumulation of primitive human experiences in the form of ideas and images called archetypes and manifested in myths as well as other cultural phenomena (e.g., religion) and in dreams. These centrally located structures link the brain to the rest of the nervous system and are said to control vital processes including emotions and long-term memory . Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and mental healthcare professionals. The theory of the unconscious formulated by Sigmund Freud was a milestone in the history of psychology.

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