T H E C O L L E C I V E U N C O N S C I O U S
"The collective unconscious - so far as we can say anything about it at all-appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious... We can therefore study the collective unconscious in two ways, either in mythology or in the analysis of the individual."
C. J. JUNG
C. J. JUNG
Before Jung's time, Sigmund Freud had given us only a superficial understanding of our unconscious mind, reducing it to a storage place for all our repressed personal psychological baggage. We had to be analysis forever to understand the unconscious motivations that were running our lives. Jung found, however, that the unconscious mind is much greater than Freud had realized, capable of accessing all of human memory–even humanity's future. He determined that the mind matrix (psyche) contains all human possibilities, past, present, and future–the archetypes in the collective unconscious.
Jung saw a personal definition of the unconscious as only a superficial layer of the unconscious mind, however, and he coined the term collective unconscious for the greater part he felt Freud left out. Jung knew, from his own profound inner work and that of his patients that we are tied to a much greater archaic collective unconscious mind that emits universal symbols and processes we all share. He believed that it isn't possible to separate ourselves from all that has affected us as a collective soul. Dr. Jung therefore has contributed to our knowledge of wholeness and expanded our consciousness by giving us both a personal and a collective psyche to work through and make conscious.
All of our human struggles and conditions are representative of aspects of the collective. We are here to take on the archetypal human situations–Birth, Death, Childhood, Marriage, Maturation, Transformation, and so on. And the archetypal personages–Mother, Father, Lover, Hero, Healer, Servant, and so on–as well. We are always taking on some part of an archetypal collective pattern that is of Humanity, and of our One Body. And we must never forget this; otherwise we get lost in our personal story lines, separating from our roots. Then we feel isolated and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things–which is not Reality. We are never "just" doing something personal or unique to us. This knowledge alone, if absorbed, is transformative; it will give you a sense of meaning and high purpose. So stop right now and really take this in, through a moment of deep Self-reflection.
When we touch into this dimension in our consciousness, all things humanly possible can be accessed. Then, if we will image (imagine) one of these possibilities, we can bring it down from the abstract into the concrete mind, and this potential can be ours. Spirit is materializing through us in this manner. Through our own creative mental intentions and abilities, we Self-create: we are the reality-makers of our personal world. Remember, in the new physics, we've learned that "the observer disturbs."
Jung concept of collective unconscious is based on his experiences with schizophrenic persons since he worked in the Burgholzli psychiatric hospital.
Though initially Jung followed the Freudian theory of unconscious as the psychic strata formed by repressed wishes, he later developed his own theory on the unconscious to include some new concepts. The most important of them is the archetype.
Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious - they are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations. Thus mother-child relationship is governed by the mother archetype. Father-child - by the father archetype. Birth, death, power and failure are controlled by archetypes. The religious and mystique experiences are also governed by archetypes.
The most important of all is the Self, which is the archetype of the Center of the psychic person, his/her totality or wholeness. The Center is made of the unity of conscious and unconscious reached through the individuation process.
Archetypes manifest themselves through archetypal images (in all the cultures and religious doctrines), in dreams and visions. Therefore a great deal of Jungian interest in psyche focuses on dreams and symbols interpretation in order to discover the compensation induced by archetypes as marks of psyche transformation.
The collective unconscious is an universal datum, that is, every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since his/her birth. One can not acquire this strata by education or other conscious effort because it is innate.
We may also describe it as a universal library of human knowledge, or the sage in man, the very transcendental wisdom that guides mankind.
Jung stated that the religious experience must be linked with the experience of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Thus, God himself is lived like a psychic experience of the path that leads one to the realization of his/her psychic wholeness.
Jung saw a personal definition of the unconscious as only a superficial layer of the unconscious mind, however, and he coined the term collective unconscious for the greater part he felt Freud left out. Jung knew, from his own profound inner work and that of his patients that we are tied to a much greater archaic collective unconscious mind that emits universal symbols and processes we all share. He believed that it isn't possible to separate ourselves from all that has affected us as a collective soul. Dr. Jung therefore has contributed to our knowledge of wholeness and expanded our consciousness by giving us both a personal and a collective psyche to work through and make conscious.
All of our human struggles and conditions are representative of aspects of the collective. We are here to take on the archetypal human situations–Birth, Death, Childhood, Marriage, Maturation, Transformation, and so on. And the archetypal personages–Mother, Father, Lover, Hero, Healer, Servant, and so on–as well. We are always taking on some part of an archetypal collective pattern that is of Humanity, and of our One Body. And we must never forget this; otherwise we get lost in our personal story lines, separating from our roots. Then we feel isolated and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things–which is not Reality. We are never "just" doing something personal or unique to us. This knowledge alone, if absorbed, is transformative; it will give you a sense of meaning and high purpose. So stop right now and really take this in, through a moment of deep Self-reflection.
When we touch into this dimension in our consciousness, all things humanly possible can be accessed. Then, if we will image (imagine) one of these possibilities, we can bring it down from the abstract into the concrete mind, and this potential can be ours. Spirit is materializing through us in this manner. Through our own creative mental intentions and abilities, we Self-create: we are the reality-makers of our personal world. Remember, in the new physics, we've learned that "the observer disturbs."
Jung concept of collective unconscious is based on his experiences with schizophrenic persons since he worked in the Burgholzli psychiatric hospital.
Though initially Jung followed the Freudian theory of unconscious as the psychic strata formed by repressed wishes, he later developed his own theory on the unconscious to include some new concepts. The most important of them is the archetype.
Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious - they are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations. Thus mother-child relationship is governed by the mother archetype. Father-child - by the father archetype. Birth, death, power and failure are controlled by archetypes. The religious and mystique experiences are also governed by archetypes.
The most important of all is the Self, which is the archetype of the Center of the psychic person, his/her totality or wholeness. The Center is made of the unity of conscious and unconscious reached through the individuation process.
Archetypes manifest themselves through archetypal images (in all the cultures and religious doctrines), in dreams and visions. Therefore a great deal of Jungian interest in psyche focuses on dreams and symbols interpretation in order to discover the compensation induced by archetypes as marks of psyche transformation.
The collective unconscious is an universal datum, that is, every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since his/her birth. One can not acquire this strata by education or other conscious effort because it is innate.
We may also describe it as a universal library of human knowledge, or the sage in man, the very transcendental wisdom that guides mankind.
Jung stated that the religious experience must be linked with the experience of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Thus, God himself is lived like a psychic experience of the path that leads one to the realization of his/her psychic wholeness.