Carl Gustav Jung was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who spent his life studying the human psyche in an effort to understand the factors that influence human behavior and personality. Especially with the concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious, he brought a new perspective to psychology.
According to Jung, the motifs, characters and myths shared by cultures and individuals originate from concepts that exist in the collective unconscious of each person. As he describes it, we have an inherent tendency to use these “archetypes” by transferring them into identifiable patterns in order to understand and interpret the world.
There are many archetype categories but Jung’s configuration is the most well-known and the base for other models. He defines the majors into four groups including anima/animus, the self, the shadow, and the persona. Also mentioning images of the maiden, the mother, the child, and the wise old man. Jungian Archetypes describe the Anima/Animus as the complementary aspect of one’s gender, the Persona a social image that conforms to societal norms, the Self an individualized true human personality, and the Shadow as the repressed or hidden side of the persona.
According to Jung, visuals have to be viewed as unconscious since they don’t have any substantial value. Archetypes are metaphysical concepts, paradigms, or models. Real things are considered to be mere copies of these model ideas. They don’t become solid or effective until they come into contact with actual facts. For example, a maternal figure that closely resembles a child’s idealized concept of a mother can recall the mother archetype.
Usage of Archetypes in Literature
Using archetypes in writing is a particularly good way to achieve universal acknowledgement. The experiences readers relate to help them recognize characters as real life prototypes. Building characters based on these set templates will create a firm foundation for a fine structured literature work with realistic and complex content.
