Jungian archetypes in today’s global society Essay

This essay presents Jungian â€Å"archetypes† derived from the theoretical formulations of Carl Gustav Jung aimed at understanding their impacts in today’s global society. This essay also presents a list of individuals noted for their contributions for changing the image of the world totally different from those of the Medieval Period’s and from these thoughts one can imagine the prospects of the future. This essay concludes with the citation of some present-day personalities, technologies, and significant events as objects of Jung’s archetypes. Jung’s theory of personality has tremendous influence on sociology—â€Å"the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships [or] specifically the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings† (Merriam-Webster 2004). In order to appreciate the impact of the personality theory of Jung in sociological settings, it is necessary to mention key components of the theoretical constructs foremost of which is the â€Å"collective unconscious†Ã¢â‚¬â€in which Jungian archetypes reside. The â€Å"Ego† is the â€Å"conscious mind†Ã¢â‚¬â€it is the seat of â€Å"perceptions, memories, thoughts, and feelings †¦ from the viewpoint of an individual person it is regarded as the center of consciousness,† write Hall & Lindsey (118). The â€Å"Personal Unconscious† is the â€Å"region adjoining the ego †¦ consists of experiences that were once conscious but which have been repressed, suppressed, forgotten, or ignored† (118). Under the â€Å"Personal Unconscious† are various â€Å"complexes†Ã¢â‚¬â€the organized group or constellation of feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and memories; that have mental life of their own and have the capacity to seize the personality and to utilize for its end, like â€Å"Napoleon’s lust for power† (118). The â€Å"Collective Unconscious†Ã¢â‚¬â€considered as the â€Å"storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from one’s ancestral past, a past that includes not only the racial history of humans as a separate species but their prehuman or animal ancestry as well †¦ [It is] the psychic residue of human evolutionary development, a residue that accumulates as a consequence of repeated experiences over many generations. † If we humans today are afraid, for example, of the dark or of snakes, it is because our primitive parents â€Å"encountered many dangers in the dark and were victims of poisonous snakes,† write Hall and Lindzey (118). And â€Å"what a person learns is substantially influenced by the collective unconscious that exercises a guiding or selective influence over the behavior of the person from the very beginning of life. † Furthermore, the â€Å"two unconscious regions of the mind, the personal and the collective, can be of immense service to humans †¦ the unconscious holds possibilities which are locked away from the conscious mind, for it has its disposal all subliminal contents, all those things which have been forgotten or overlooked, as well as the wisdom and experience of uncounted centuries, which are laid down in its archetypal organs† (119-120). The â€Å"structural components of the collective unconscious are called by various names: archetypes †¦ primordial images †¦ mythological images, and behavior patterns† quotes Hall and Lindzey of Jung (1943). â€Å"An archetype is a universal thought (idea) form that contains a large element of emotion† (Hall and Lindzey 120). An example is the â€Å"mother archetype†Ã¢â‚¬â€an image or a perception of an individual recognized by an infant irregardless of race anywhere in the world. How can this happen? â€Å"It is a permanent deposit in the mind of an experience that has been constantly repeated for many generations. † (Hall and Lindzey 121). Another example is an image of the â€Å"sun† which has been seen by all inhabitants of the world (except the blinds) rose in the east and set on the west horizons—so that â€Å"certain concepts and images of a supreme deity are off-shoots of the sun archetype† (121). â€Å"In a similar manner, humans have been exposed through their existence to innumerable instances of great natural forces—earthquakes, waterfalls, floods, hurricanes, lightning, forest fires †¦ Out of these experiences there has developed an archetype of energy† (121). On the other hand, two or more archetypes sometimes fuse together so that one can see the person of a â€Å"Hitler† as a form of fused archetypes of â€Å"demon and hero †¦ so that one gets a satanic leader. † Furthermore, â€Å"[m]yths, dreams, visions, rituals, neurotic and psychotic symptoms, and works of art contain a great deal of archetypal material, and constitute the best source of knowledge regarding archetypes,† write Hall and Lindzey (122-123). Jung identified four key archetypes in his personality theory—they are briefly described here, namely: The â€Å"Persona†Ã¢â‚¬â€is a â€Å"mask adopted by the person in response to the demands of social convention and tradition and to his or her own inner archetypal needs,† quote Hall and Lindzey of Jung (1945). This persona is the â€Å"role assigned to one by society, the part that society expects one to play in life. The purpose of the mask is to make a definite impression upon others and it often †¦ conceals the real nature of the person. The persona is the public personality †¦ contrasted with private personality that exists behind the social facade† (Hall and Lindzey 122). The person archetype â€Å"originates out of the experiences of the race; in this case, the experiences consist of social interactions in which the assumption of a social role has served a useful purpose to humans throughout their history as social animals† (122). The â€Å"Anima and the Animus†Ã¢â‚¬â€it is â€Å"fairly well recognized and accepted that a human is a bisexual animal. On a physiological level, the male secretes both male and female sex hormones, as does the female. On the psychological level, masculine and feminine characteristics are found in both sexes†¦. The feminine archetype in man is called the anima, the masculine archetype in woman is called the animus,† quote Hall and Lindzey of Jung (1945, 1954b). These archetypes are the â€Å"products of the racial experiences of man with woman and woman with man †¦ by living with woman throughout the ages man has become feminized; by living with man woman has become masculinized† (122-123). The â€Å"Shadow† archetype consists of the animal instincts that humans inherited in their evolution from lower forms of life, cites Hall and Lindzey of Jung (1948a). Consequently, the shadow †¦ typifies the animal side of human nature. As an archetype, â€Å"the shadow is responsible for our conception of original sin; when it is projected outward it becomes the devil and an enemy†¦. [It is] responsible for the appearance in consciousness and behavior of unpleasant and socially reprehensible thoughts, feelings and actions. These then may either be hidden from public view by the persona or repressed into the personal unconscious† (Hall and Lindzey 123). The â€Å"Self† archetype â€Å"expresses itself in various symbols, the chief one being the mandala or magic circle,† writes Jung (1955a). The self according to Jung is the total unity of all the systems that make up the personality. The self â€Å"holds these systems together and provides the personality with unity, equilibrium, and stability. † The self is â€Å"life’s goal, a goal that people constantly strive for but rarely reach †¦ it motivates human behavior and causes one to search for wholeness especially through the avenues provided by religion,† and it is here where the â€Å"figures of Christ and Buddha are as highly differentiated expressions of the self archetype as one will find in the modern world,† write Hall & Lindzey (124). The foregoing presented an overview of the key Jungian archetypes. Hall and Lindzey write that the â€Å"most salient feature of Jung’s theory of personality †¦ is the emphasis that he places upon the forward-going character of personality development †¦ [that] humans are constantly progressing or attempting to progress from a less complete stage of development to a more complete one †¦ [and] that mankind as a species is constantly evolving more differentiated forms of existence† (134). Table 1 shows the Table of Contents of a special edition of the Reader’s Digest magazine capturing the significant contributions of popular and important persons the world has ever produced so far. Each one of the persons mentioned walked in the alleys of human endeavors leaving a legacy that benefited many generations to come after theirs including today’s generation. Table 1. Table of Contents of a Pocket Book on â€Å"popular and important subjects. † Adapt from Reader’s Digest (n. d. ) I. Giants of the World of Science—Copernicus: The man who moved the World (pp. 3-8); Galileo—Bold Discoverer (pp.9-14); Sir Isaac Newton, Explorer of the Universe (pp. 15-20); The Evolution of Charles Darwin (pp. 21-28); Albert Einstein, the man, and the Theory (pp. 29-33). II. They Opened Our Minds—Socrates: A One-Man Turning Point in History (pp. 37-42); What Plato Says to Us (pp. 43-48); Aristotle: Master Mind of 300 B. C. (pp. 49-52); Listen to Wisdom of Confucius (pp. 53-56); William James and the Adventure of Being Human (pp. 57-66); Emerson’s vital Message for Today (pp. 67-74). III. They Sought the True Way—The Man Called Jesus (pp. 77-82); Saint Paul – Apostle to All Men (pp. 83-88); Islam: the Misunderstood Religion (pp.89-98); Buddha, â€Å"The Enlightened One† (pp. 99-104). IV. They Fought for Democracy—Thomas Jefferson, Architect of Democracy (pp. 107-112); The Prodigious Gifts of Benjamin Franklin (pp. 113-118); Woodrow Wilson’s fight for Peace (pp. 119-124); â€Å"We Must Never Deny Our Gratitude†: A Portrait of Winston Churchill (pp. 125-130). V. They Opened the Door—Columbus: He Knew the World Was Round (pp. 133-140); Westward – With Lewis and Clark (pp. 141-148); And Then Came Ford (pp. 149-158); Alexander Graham Bell: The Man Who Tied the World Together (pp. 159-164). VI. Apostle of Human Rights—Abraham Lincoln’s Hardest Decision (pp.167-172); Mr. Thoreau of Walden Pond (pp. 173-180); Gandhi: Apostle of Non-Violence (pp. 181-188). VII. Giants of the Arts—Leonardo da Vinci: The Firs Modern (pp. 191-198); Delacroix: He Opened the Door to Modern Art (pp. 199-202); Pablo Picasso, Artist of the Century (pp. 203-208); Beethoven the Incredible (pp. 209-214); Frederic Chopin: Poet of the Piano (pp. 215-218); Mozart, Music’s Wonder Child (pp. 219-224). VIII. They Took Us Into the Future—The Day the Atomic Age Was Born (pp. 227-232); We Tamed Penicillin (pp. 233-238); With Ranger VII-To the Moon (pp. 239-245). What is the goal of human development? Toward what end are humans and mankind striving? Hall and Lindzey’s answer to these questions is this: the â€Å"ultimate goal is summed up by the term self-realization. Self-realization means the fullest, most complete differentiation and harmonious blending of all aspects of a human’s total personality. † To this end, there is one significant thing that appears to be consistent in all human history—this is what Hall and Lindzey write as â€Å"progress† which â€Å"did not stop with the creation of humans; just as humans represent an advancement over all other species of animals, so does civilized man represent an improvement over primitive man† (134). Meanwhile, Koontz, O’Donnell, and Heinz Weihrich, write â€Å"Every group of people that performs near its total capability has some person as its head who is skilled in the art of leadership [with] †¦ at least three major ingredients—the ability to comprehend that human beings have differing motivating forces at varying times and in different situations, the ability to inspire, and the ability to act in a way that will develop a climate for responding to an arousing motivations† (663). Who are the prime persons and entities in the 1990’s and in the current decade that could have influenced the direction of the world affairs in today’s â€Å"global society†? I have a few names to mention before ending this essay: the introduction of the â€Å"internet† in the early 1990’s that almost shattered the communication barriers overnight with Bill Gates’s Microsoft Internet Explorer; George W. Bush, Sr. and the first Gulf War in the Middle East that reinforced the resentment of the Muslim world against Christendom and in particular the United States; Osama Bin Landen and the 9/11 terrorism; George W. Bush, Jr. and Weapons of Mass Destruction with Iraq War; astronomy and the Hubble Space Telescope that captured close-up photos of far-flung universes never before seen (Voit); and the twin rovers that traversed the Martian face with Intel’s microprocessors as enablers of nanotechnology. These never-ceasing human endeavors reflect Jung’s archetypal descriptions present in all human undertakings in any given society around the world. References Hall, Calvin S. , and Gardner Lindzey. Theories of Personality. 3rd Ed.. New York, NY: Wiley, 1978. Koontz, Harold, Cyril O’Donnell, and Heinz Weihrich. Management. 7th ed. Tokyo, Japan: McGraw, 1980. They Changed Our World. Editors of Reader’s Digest. USA: Berkely, (n. d. ). Voit, Mark. Hubble space telescope: new views of the universe. Ed. Himmel, Eric. New York, NY: Abrams.