Introduction:
Presented first is a brief description of some controversial ideas of Carl Gustav Jung. After discussing
Freud and Jung’s interpretations of the Ego, the Personal and the Collective Unconscious will be explored, using an
example from a popular novel to demonstrate a parable. While exploring the collective unconscious, various Archetypes are
mentioned, then in more detail his more pronounced and better-known Archetypes are covered. Anima and Animus, the Shadow and
the Persona are discussed, using motion pictures, fiction, and nonfiction literature to explain his ideas.
Jung and Freud:
Carl Jung’s search for information about the human psyche led him to concepts that many regard
as farfetched: the occult, extra sensory perception, alchemy, flying saucers, the collective unconscious, etc. Therefore,
many of his theories were quite controversial--even thought of as ridiculous and unscientific.
Sigmund Freud and Jung were close friends--Jung admiring Freud as a guru and a father figure; however,
in 1909, when Jung proposed the existence of the collective unconscious, Freud balked, considering it ridiculous and unscientific.
This disagreement severed their relationship permanently, which hurt Jung emotionally. However, he went on to develop his
theory of the collective unconscious that we are familiar with today.
Freud and Jung both conceptualized an Ego; however, their notions differed. Freud described the Ego
in conjunction with the Id and the Superego. Jung (1959) emphasizes that "by ego I understand a complex of ideas which constitutes
the centre of my field of consciousness and appears to possess a high degree of continuity and identity" (C.W. 6, par. 706).
In the beginning of life, mother and Ego is one. As the child develops, mother and child separate
and the child forms an independent ego-consciousness; therefore, the ego is a complex of conscious ideas that constitutes
the center of one’s awareness.
It was Jung’s contention that the personal unconscious begins to form at birth and contains
material derived from personal experience that is no longer (or is not yet) at the level of awareness. It was also his contention
that the human psyche contained universal memories and a history of humankind-- the collective unconscious. Joseph Campbell
(1971) quotes Jung by saying that "just as the individual is not merely a unique and separate being, but is also a social
being, so the human psyche is not a self-contained and wholly individual phenomenon, but also a collective one" (p. 93). In
the Clan of the Cave Bear series, novelist Jean Auel uses a variation of the collective unconscious in her depiction
of primitive man. Iza, the medicine woman of the Flatheads Clan, received her memories from her genetic medicinal ancestry.
The rest of the members of the clan did not have these particular memories. They had others--still of a collective
nature from their specific histories.
Within the collective unconscious there are common repeated images that Jung called Archetypes. An
archetype can be a picture, such as the ‘magic circle’ called a mandala in Eastern religions, which Jung
thought symbolized the unity of life and the totality of the self. Other Archetypes include mythical images such as the Hero,
the Nurturing Mother, the Powerful Father, or the Wicked Witch. The more widely known Jungian archetypes are the Anima and
Animus, the Shadow, and the Persona.
The Anima:
In American and many other societies, they raise boys to believe that real men do not cry, real men
can take pain, real men are leaders, and real men are not sensitive and prone to sentimentalities--they are macho. If a man
is not tough, then he is considered a wimp, pansy or sissy. Jung (1959) says "the Anima is a factor of the utmost importance in the psychology of a man wherever emotions and
affects are at work" (C.W. 9/1, par. 144). If a man cries at a sad movie, his anima is at work. If a man decides not to have
sex with a teenage girl because she is a virgin, his anima is at work. "When the anima is strongly constellated, she softens
the man’s character and makes him touchy, irritable, moody, jealous, vain and unadjusted" (C.W. 9/1, par. 144). In recent
years the Anima in men has become more accepted. However, twenty years ago "a house husband" that let his wife bring home
the bacon while he prepared it, would have been thought of as a worthless degenerate, just using the good nature of a hard-working
woman--a gigolo. A perfect example is the motion picture Mr. Mom depicting Michael Keaton as a newly unemployed husband
wrestling with house chores and kids while his wife works.
The Animus:
A woman is sensitive, emotional, sweet and friendly, and very feminine. As Jung stated above about
the anima, she is also touchy, irritable, moody, jealous, vain and unadjusted. She belongs in the kitchen, she nurtures the
kids and she comforts her hard-working husband. However, according to Jung, "Woman is compensated by a masculine element and
therefore her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This results in a considerable psychological difference between
men and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-making factor in women the animus, which means mind or spirit"
(C.W. 9/11, par. 29). The acceptance, at least in American society, of masculine behavior in women, often receives as much
criticism as their male counterparts. Despite such criticisms, women play sports and are now in the work force more than ever;
they are college professors in major universities; and they are in the military. The true story and motion picture starring
Meg Ryan Courage Under Fire is an excellent example of the Animus in action when Captain Karen Walden won the Medal
of Honor for combat. Of course this is not the first woman to receive the Medal of Honor. In 1865 Dr. Mary E. Walker
received the Congressional Medal of Honor for her performance on the Civil War battle field as a medical doctor. However,
her fame continued as a very controversial feminist. Snyder (1962) describes Mary Walker as having been a "Bloomer Girl" since
the early 1850s, and she adopted male attire in the 1870s. Subsequently, she lectured for dress reform and suffrage, which
earned her a living, but a break with others in the movement over tactics brought her income to an end. Her attire offended
people everywhere she went. In 1917 the fathers of our country decided that she had embarrassed them long enough and rescinded
her Medal of Honor; however, she would not give it back to them. She started displaying her medal in carnivals and
side shows to make a living, diminishing her reputation even more. Her animus, to say the least, was quite pronounced. In
1977, through the persistence of her extended family members, Mary Walker’s Medal of Honor was restored--almost
a hundred years later.
Anima and Animus are the gatekeepers of the self. Furthermore, they are not necessarily feminine/masculine,
rather, they are a symbolic representation of what is thought of as feminine or masculine.
The Shadow:
"The Shadow is a moral problem," says Jung (1970), "that challenges the whole ego-personality, for
no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing
the dark aspects of the personality as present and real" (C.W. 9/11, par. 14). In trying to understand his dream of killing
Siegfried, Jung (1989) in Memories, Dreams, Reflections recognized the Shadow in the "small brown skinned man who accompanied
me and had actually taken the initiative in the killing was an embodiment of the primitive shadow" (p. 181)
One way of recognizing the Shadow is to compare it with Freud’s concept of the Id. Just as it
is impossible to have sunshine without a shadow, the light of consciousness must always be accompanied by the dark side of
our personality. In meetings of Alcoholic’s and Narcotic’s Anonymous, members often relate that some behaviors
in other people often anger them. At meetings and through interaction with sponsors, those people are often reminded that
what it is they are annoyed with in others, is what they actually dislike about themselves--often, the Shadow. The Shadow
reflects not only individual weaknesses, but also aspects common to all people. A good example is the tendency of an angry
motorist to slow down and not let another motorist pass because of some error in judgement that could have been committed
by the angry motorist himself an hour before. It is terrible if someone else commits these traffic atrocities, but natural
and understandable if we do it. Jung (1970) describes it by saying "Closer examination of the dark characteristics--that is,
the inferiorities constituting the shadow--reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly
an obsessive or, better, possessive quality" (C.W. 9/11, par. 15).
Chemical dependency in the lives of many is a manifestation of the Shadow. Most people start imbibing
at a young age, before the reality of consequences has a chance to prove themselves. Even after they do prove themselves,
after many years of reckless behavior: jails and institutions, loss of families and jobs, wrecked cars, forsaken friendships,
lying, stealing, and manipulating, the behavior continues with the chemically dependent person being oblivious to the damage
they have done to themselves and others--especially others. Jung agrees when he wrote that "it is often tragic to see how
blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy
originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course--for consciously
he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance" (C.W. 9/11, par.
18). It is not likely that the dependency of chemicals itself is Shadow. No, the chemicals only predispose the person to the
behavior that is adopted. The shadow rears its ugly head when the chemically dependent person resorts to criminal behavior,
among other maladaptive behaviors, to support the dependence.
The Persona:
As indicated by Humbert (1996), "persona originally referred to the masks actors wore in the theatres
[sic] of antiquity. This mask made the actor’s voice resound while it allowed the audience to recognize the role that
the actor played (p. 51).
When one performs a job or profession, the persona of the individual is observed by all of the people
in the environment. "Jack is persnickety, organized, efficient and competent." This description is Jack’s Persona at
his job. In other environments Jack will display a different Persona. "Jack is caring, generous, loving, and dependable. This
description is Jack’s Persona at home. Jung (1953) writes that "when we analyse [sic] the persona we strip off the mask,
and discover that what seemed to be individual is at bottom collective; in other words, that the persona was only a mask for
the collective psyche. Fundamentally the persona is nothing real: it is a compromise between individual and society as to
what a man [or woman] should appear to be. He takes a name, earns a title, represents an office, he is this or that. In a
certain sense all this is real, yet in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned it is only a secondary
reality, a product of compromise, in making which others often have a greater share than he. The persona is a semblance, a
two-dimensional reality, to give it a nickname" (C.W. 7, par. 246).
An excellent example of the Persona is in the person of General Robert E. Lee. The American Civil
War was the arena where he earned the legendary motif of the greatest commander in the history of the United States
Army. His Persona during the latter part of the war was daring, relentless, risk-taking, bodacious, calculative, and that
of a strict disciplinarian. Without him fighting for the Southern confederacy, the war might well have ended much sooner.
When the war was over and he took over the presidency of Washington University (later renamed after him: Washington
& Lee University), he had a much more mellow Persona, one of quiet dignity, superior intellect, academic perfection,
and a mild manner. Ironically, these Personas are not mutually exclusive, but they certainly are autonomous in their own spheres.
There are a multitude of archetypes. As you read through other pages on my website, you'll find the
most dominate archetypes constellated in male drug addicts and criminalized male drug addicts. Research on the archetypes
personified in women drug addicts is material for an entirely different research project.
