PSYCH 2B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Carl Jung, Personal Unconscious, Collective Unconscious
15 May 2018
School
Department
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Professor
Jung & Analytic Psychology
Lecture 3
• Carl Gustav Jung – a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical
psychology (1920)
• Association test – say a series of words to the individual and ask the individual to say the
first word that comes to mind. Each word is a probe to explore the unconscious;
unconscious responds by directing the conscious mind to produce some response
o Recorded time it took to answer (latency) and what words were said
• Jung also believed in the psychic energy libido which powered motivation. However,
Jung saw libido as a broad life energy/force (not solely sexual)
Psychic Structures
• Believed the mind has conscious and unconscious components
• Two structures in the unconscious: (Freud had 3 structures)
o Collective Unconscious – the largest & most important. Conceptualizes human
nature. It is shared in common by all human beings; we all have the same
collective unconscious
▪ Archetypes – instincts r/t cognitive processes (ways of thinking). The
patterns of thinking and interpreting our world are instinctive and help us
get along w/ people. Do not have content – they have shapes. We pour our
experiences into the shape of our archetypes and we interpret them in
terms of our archetypes
• Libido energy is stored in separate archetypes. Each archetype
comes w/ their own energy and we want to use up this libido.
Invest this instinctive energy into our everyday lives through
projection
• Projection – whenever we interpret some event/experience in
archetypal terms, we use up some libido associated w/ that
archetype. This is pleasurable
• Examples of archetypes: the hero, wise old man, mother, father,
trickster/class clown, divine child
▪ The collective unconscious is present at birth
▪ We can never know the contents of the collective unconscious
o Personal Unconscious – differ b/w individuals, where human uniqueness comes
from. Functions like Freud’s idea of the unconscious ego. 3 things are stored here:
▪ Images of memories/experiences are stored here (not always used but can
be easily retrieved)
▪ Bad memories are repressed into personal unconscious (can actively keep
bad memories out of conscious ego)
▪ Sensory information (hear/see/feel) that we don’t notice consciously and
never made into permanent memories is stored here → subliminal
information
▪ This content is organized into complexes – constellations of thoughts,
images, & ideas related by a single emotional theme (positive/negative,
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how we feel about it) each complex has at their core an archetypal theme
w/ the same name as the complex
• Ex: one complex could be the mother complex. Anything that
reminds us of our mother is stored in this complex
• Complex is powered by stored libidinal energy from the archetypes
in collective unconscious
▪ The personal unconscious is empty at birth → no experiences yet. Over
time, memories/experiences will begin to be organized into complexes
▪ We are able to know contents of the personal unconscious and retrieve
these memories
• Ego – identical to Freud except Jung believed the ego was fully conscious. Conscious
layer that sits on top of the personal & collective unconscious
Five Archetypes (tend to form complexes in every human being) – the Vital Archetypes
• Shapes our behaviour in the world and our personality
• The Persona – contains parts of our personality that we expose to others b/c we believe
they will be socially acceptable. We are aware of this archetype
o Archetype: instinct for social conformity, the desire to please others and be
accepted/valued by others. We conform to people to make them like us
▪ Projected onto experiences by dreaming/writing about objects that
represent a persona and who someone is (e.g., doctor’s bag, workman’s
toolkit) when shown in dreams for example, it is a projection of the
persona
o Complex: the personality shown to others, the social self. Public presentation of
most positive/socially acceptable aspects of self
▪ We are aware that we shouldn’t show parts of us to people. Very rarely,
people don’t have a persona complex and show all sides of themselves;
they are who they are
o Downside: we lose touch with who we are when we become who we think is
socially acceptable (inflation of the persona)
• The Amina – present only in males. It is each man’s unconscious image & understanding
of women
o Archetype: a male’s instinct of interpretation of women. Sees women 2 ways in 1
archetype:
▪ Caring, nurturing, gentle, supportive
▪ Seductive, sex objects, source of sexual pleasure
o Complex: includes aspects of his personality that he rejects from consciousness
b/c they are inconsistent w/ his view of masculinity. Their “female side”,
contrasexual side
▪ Jung believed in order to get to understand your unconscious, have to start
w/ getting in touch w/ feminine side. The anima is the guide to the
unconscious
▪ Some men are okay with this side of themselves and don’t repress it
• The Animus – present only in females. It is the women’s unconscious image &
understanding of men
o Archetype: a female’s instinctive understanding/beliefs about males
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Document Summary
Jung saw libido as a broad life energy/force (not solely sexual) Psychic structures: believed the mind has conscious and unconscious components, two structures in the unconscious: (freud had 3 structures, collective unconscious the largest & most important. It is shared in common by all human beings; we all have the same collective unconscious: archetypes instincts r/t cognitive processes (ways of thinking). The patterns of thinking and interpreting our world are instinctive and help us get along w/ people. Do not have content they have shapes. We pour our experiences into the shape of our archetypes and we interpret them in terms of our archetypes: libido energy is stored in separate archetypes. Each archetype comes w/ their own energy and we want to use up this libido. Invest this instinctive energy into our everyday lives through projection: projection whenever we interpret some event/experience in archetypal terms, we use up some libido associated w/ that archetype.
