Four Main Archetypes Jung Introduced

By Rhea Frazier


Well-known Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was Freud's student, but he developed his own theories. This versatile scientist was interested in some other areas as well, including sociology, astrology and philosophy. He introduced the concepts of extroverted and introverted personalities, among other things. He was mainly interested in unlocking human personalities, and here are four major archetypes Jung introduced.

The Shadow, The Self, The Anima or Animus and The Persona are the most important ones, but Jung recognized many other human archetypes. They are usually overlapped and all can be somehow linked to major ones. Animal archetypes are often used in everyday life, for example the faithful dog. It stands for loyalty without question.

The Self is the perfect union between consciousness and unconsciousness, human and God. Humans experience such perfect union in the very moment of their birth, when they are still the whole. After that, life makes them change, and they split into different parts of their personalities. That's why people want to re-establish this perfect moment, the Nirvana.

The Shadow represents deeper elements of the psyche, the ones people usually are aware of at some point, but rarely want to admit, even to themselves. It embodies dark, mysterious, wild and chaotic. You can also describe them as dark elements of someone's nature. These elements may appear in dreams, in hallucinations or in some specific life situations, when they can even take over.

The Animus and the Anima represent male and female, or masculine and feminine sides of human personalities. They also stand as a mean for communicate with collective unconscious. Every person has feminine and masculine side, both men and women. Also, men usually have only one dominant female figure in their life, while women are usually more complex.

The perfect unity between The Anima and The Animus is called Syzygy. This term is used to denote the planets alignment as well. Everyone wants to be whole again. That's why people are trying to find their perfect soul-mate, just because they want to achieve the perfect wholeness. Only very few people are lucky enough to actually succeed in this quest.

The Persona represents not who you really are, but how you are presenting yourself to other people. This term actually means the mask. People are not really wearing masks, but they do need to protect themselves from negative influences. It is quite similar to acting, and these roles have their purpose. They choose their masks depending on particular situations.

There are also very popular family archetypes, and it is quite easy to guess their meanings. Father, for example, is authoritative figure, and represents control and power. On the other side is Mother, standing for soothing and comforting elements. Another Family archetype, the Child, represents all sorts of beginnings, birth and innocence.

Some others, like story archetypes, are also quite popular. The Hero represents power, strength, fighting for greater good, pride, while The Maiden stands for purity, for someone who needs protection, who is fragile and innocent. Another well known archetype is The Earth Mother, and it represents the Nature, with all her characteristics.




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