dispersion theory and collective unconsciousdispersion theory and collective unconscious

Its simply this: people move. The term 'collective unconscious' can be defined as the universal psychological experience that is shared by members of a culture based on ancestral experience which elicits involuntary responses. As well as being a cultural icon for generations of psychology undergraduates Jung, therefore, put forward ideas which were important to the development of modern personality theory. In humans, the psyche mediates between the primal force of the collective unconscious and the experience of consciousness or dream. Jung, C. G. (1933). In this way, the patient no longer uncritically transfers their feelings about the archetype onto people in everyday life, and as a result, can develop healthier and more personal relationships. However, it is not directly available to us; rather it is encountered in symbolic form through dreams and other . (for more on screen writing and Joseph Campbell, see Christopher Voglers The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers). Journal of Analytical Psychology, 57(2), 223-246. Block, MD, is an award-winning, board-certified psychiatrist who operates a private practice in Pennsylvania. This is the public face or role a person presents to others as someone different to who we really are (like an actor). The telephone theory The emigration theory The dispersion theory The theory of the collective unconscious. The preference for distinct contrasts is hypothesized to . The unconscious is the portion of the self of which the individual is unaware, yet which still exerts control over the behaviors, desires, and drives of that individual. 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 Archetypes are innate psychic dispositions that serve to experience and represent behavior and basic human situations. 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. [25], Jung believed that proof of the existence of a collective unconscious, and insight into its nature, could be gleaned primarily from dreams and from active imagination, a waking exploration of fantasy. Specifically it posits that there are distinctiveness constraints that favor contrasts that are more perceptually distinct over less distinct contrasts. At times, the collective unconscious can terrify, but it can also heal. Jung (1947) called these ancestral memories and images archetypes. He believed that the psyche was divided into three parts (tripartite), the id, the ego and the superego, and all three develop at different stages in our lives. 2023 Dotdash Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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". (1970). The collective unconscious refers to that part of the unconscious mind that is common to all human beings. Preparedness and phobias. Collected works. For Jung, the purpose of psychic energy was to motivate the individual in a number of important ways, including spiritually, intellectually, and creatively. Simply Psychology's content is for informational and educational purposes only. 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. Like Freud, Jung (1921, 1933) emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. Theyre essentially the same god, serving the same functions, getting up to the same mischief, but look at how the names have changed. He was the first to distinguish the two major attitudes or orientations of personality extroversion and introversion (Jung, 1923). The conscious personality is a more or less arbitrary segment of the collective psyche. )[72], In a minimalist interpretation of what would then appear as "Jung's much misunderstood idea of the collective unconscious", his idea was "simply that certain structures and predispositions of the unconscious are common to all of us [on] an inherited, species-specific, genetic basis". This is due to the fact that, when many people gather together to share one common emotion, the total psyche emerging from the group is below the level of the . [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'. It refers to the work of Durkheim, Halbwachs, and Giddens. Therefore, symbols may require interpretation before they can be understood as archetypes. It consists of 6 . Born in Switzerland in 1875, Carl Jung founded the school of analytical psychology. 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. However in 1912 while on a lecture tour of America Jung publicly criticized Freuds theory of the Oedipus complex and his emphasis on infantile sexuality. This localization explains a good deal of their strangeness: they bring into our ephemeral consciousness an unknown psychic life belonging to a remote past. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed in a psychodynamic approach to psychology and focused on how the unconscious mind motivates the actions of a person. American Psychological Association. He believed that archetypes exist in every mind. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Young-Eisendrath, Polly, & Terrence Dawson (eds. More than just being repressed wishes, Jung felt that dreams compensate for parts of the psyche that are underdeveloped in our waking lives. At the same time, Jung believed that dreams are highly personal and that dream interpretation requires knowing a great deal about the individual dreamer. I take a hybrid approach: in so much as there some universals for all human beings, there should be some universality to our stories. Jung's collective unconscious is essentially a foundation of archetypes and psychological motifs that are inherent in humans. Jung used his theory of the collective unconscious to explain how fears and social phobias can manifest in children and adults for no apparent reason. [25], A more common experimental approach investigates the unique effects of archetypal images. 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. Collective unconscious: how gut microbes shape human behavior. II. 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. In line with evolutionary theory it may be that Jungs archetypes reflect predispositions that once had survival value. Jung (1933) outlined an important feature of the personal unconscious called complexes. 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.). 2016;55(4):1246-60. doi:10.1007/s10943-016-0237-4. This is because it is difficult to scientifically prove that images of mythology and other cultural symbols are inherited and present at birth. 244.] And what do we take with us? Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's theories of synchronicity and the collective unconscious are normally considered by commentators as being very separate pieces of work. Are archetypes transmitted more by culture than biology? For example, mythology offers many examples of the "dual mother" narrative, according to which a child has a biological mother and a divine mother. Simply Psychology. The biggest difference between their explanations of the unconscious mind is that Freud believed that it was the product of personal experiences, while Jung believed that the unconscious was inherited from the past collective experience of humanity. Jung (1948) disagreed with Freud regarding the role of sexuality. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. According to Jung, these mythological images or cultural symbols are not static or fixed. Jungs (1947, 1948) ideas have not been as popular as Freuds. [52], Practitioners of analytic psychotherapy, Jung cautioned, could become so fascinated with manifestations of the collective unconscious that they facilitated their appearance at the expense of their patient's well-being. Collective unconscious (German: kollektives Unbewusstes) refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. The idea of the collective unconscious is arguably Carl Jung's most original and controversial contribution to psychology. Jung, C. G. (1948). 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 . The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. Many of these connotations were obscure to laypeople. However, he proposed that the unconscious consists of two layers. An influential study of this type, by Rosen, Smith, Huston, & Gonzalez in 1991, found that people could better remember symbols paired with words representing their archetypal meaning. My Words; Recents; Settings; Log Out; Games & Quizzes; Thesaurus; Features; Word of the Day; Shop; Join MWU; More . Yet he also noted that the idea of the unconscious on its own was thought . [53], Elements from the collective unconscious can manifest among groups of people, who by definition all share a connection to these elements. Carl Jung was an early supporter of Freud because of their shared interest in the unconscious. The meaning of DISPERSION is diaspora. 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). So, for example, one of the archetypes is the loving mother/devouring mother, sometimes called the mother as both womb and tomb. The same is true of his wife Hera, who becomes Juno among the Romans. Despite the fact that there are purported to be universal processes and ontological features of mind throughout all psychoanalytical schools of thought, Jung's is unique i Jung believed that due to the archetypes represented, specific symbols in dreams are universal. These ancestral memories, which Jung called In cant explain why some cultures favor certain myths over others, especially if they all arise from the same source, the collective unconscious. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 3(3), 213-231. Two theories of archetypes are collective unconsciousness and dispersion theory. Jung, C. G. (1953). [16], A complete list of archetypes cannot be made, nor can differences between archetypes be absolutely delineated. his least understood and highly-disputed contributions, the theory of the . Vol. Even a simple hungry feeling can lead to many different responses, including metaphorical sublimation. According to Jung, the ego represents the conscious mind as it comprises the thoughts, memories, and emotions a person is aware of. 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. [73] Thus "one could as easily speak of the 'collective arm' meaning the basic pattern of bones and muscles which all human arms share in common."[74]. Therefore, psychologists could learn about the collective unconscious by studying religions and spiritual practices of all cultures, as well as belief systems like astrology. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Jan 2013. For Jung, the result was that the full psychological development both sexes was undermined. 2 Reviews. Fear of the dark, loud sounds, bridges, or blood may all be rooted in this collective unconscious due to an inherited genetic trait. ", Brown, Jeffrey M., & Terence P. Hannigan. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. 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. dispersion theory and collective unconscious. Others point out however that "there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung's various descriptions of the Collective Unconscious. Its purpose is to situate the concept of collective consciousness in a broad interdisciplinary context. The entirety of the collective unconscious is God. In this respect, psychology may be compared to astronomy, the phenomena of which also cannot be enclosed within a controlled setting. But thats not enough to account for the wide range of myths. J Analytic Psychol. 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Are collective unconsciousness and dispersion theory Psychology, 3 ( 3 ), 223-246 in Switzerland in,... Differences between archetypes be absolutely delineated but it can also heal Campbell, see Voglers. Was undermined `` there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung 's various descriptions of the collective (! Conscious personality is a more dispersion theory and collective unconscious less arbitrary segment of the archetypes is the mother/devouring. Important feature of the collective psyche called complexes, including metaphorical sublimation this because. Freud, Jung felt that dreams compensate for parts of the psyche mediates between the primal of... Personality is a more or less arbitrary segment of the various descriptions the! Experience of consciousness or dream more common experimental approach investigates the unique effects of archetypal images at birth,... More than just being repressed wishes, Jung ( 1948 ) disagreed with Freud regarding role. 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