Concept of Archetypes at Carl Jung

• About the archetypes of the colective unconscious:
  - Animus
  - Anima
  - The Shadow
  - The Wise Man
   
• Learn more about archetypes in dreams by taking our email course on dream interpretation at Jung - click here...

In his work on the confrontation of conscious and unconscious, Jung describes the unconscious contents or archetypal images. Among these he mentions a few universal ones: the Shadow, Anima/Animus, the Wise Man and the Center.

But what is the archetype? A hereditary given that shapes and transforms individual conscious. A given that is defined especially by a tendency rather than by specific contents, inherited images etc; a matrix that influences human behavior both on the level of ideas and on the moral, ethical level, of conduct in general. Jung talks about archetype (named at first primordial image) as biologists' patterns of behavior. So, archetypes are innate tendencies that mold the human conduct.

"The concept of archetype - states Jung - arises from the repeated observation that sometimes myths and tales from universal literature comprise well defined themes which reappear everywhere and every time. We find the same themes in fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of individuals that live in our present days". These thematic images are representations of archetypes, they have archetypes as roots. They impress, influence and fascinate us.

"Archetypes do not have a determinate content... but since the moment they become conscious, that is filled with the material of our conscious experience... The archetype is empty; it is a pure formal element, nothing else but a possibility to perform, a tendency of representation given a priori".

Archetypes correspond to instincts that, as well, cannot be recognized as such unless they become manifest.

Finally, the archetype is psychoid, that is psychic-like but not immediately accessible to the mind.

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