Collective unconscious

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Jung's definitions[edit]



Archetypes and collective representations[edit]



Minimal/maximal interpretations[edit]

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'.[5] 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'.[6]

Others point out however that 'there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung's various descriptions of the Collective Unconscious. Sometimes he seems to regard the predisposition to experience certain images as understandable in terms of some genetic model'[7] - as with the collective arm. However, Jung was 'also at pains to stress the numinous quality of these experiences, and there can be no doubt that he was attracted to the idea that the archetypes afford evidence of some communion with some divine or world mind', and perhaps 'his popularity as a thinker derives precisely from this'[8] - the maximal interpretation.

Marie-Louise von Franz accepted that 'it is naturally very tempting to identify the hypothesis of the collective unconscious historically and regressively with the ancient idea of an all-extensive world-soul'.[9] New Age writer Healy goes further, claiming that Jung himself 'dared to suggest that the human mind could link to ideas and motivations called the collective unconscious...a body of unconscious energy that lives forever'.[10] This is the idea of monopsychism.

See also[edit]


  6. ^ Gooch, p. 433
  8. ^ Cook, p. 405

Further reading[edit]

  • Michael Vannoy Adams, The Mythological Unconscious (2001)
  • Jung, Carl. The Development of Personality.

External links[edit]