Jung & Depth Psychology
Teaching · 1946
The Archetype and the Archetypal Image
The Lattice, Not the Crystal
The pattern itself is never seen — only its images, which is why no one can honestly count them.
What it isJung's own analogy is a crystal: the axial system determines the form the crystal will take while having no material existence as the crystal. The archetype is the lattice, never observed; only images are. Which is why any numbered list of them is counting the wrong thing.
The FindingJung's own position from 1946 is that the archetype itself is never observed and cannot be made conscious, only its images can — so the numbered Jungian sets on sale, Mark and Pearson's twelve brand archetypes of 2001 included, are counting images of something he had said in 1936 was as numerous as life's typical situations.
Teaching · 1919
The Word Archetype
Borrowed Word, Later Pedigree
An ancient theological word, borrowed in 1919 for a use no ancient author intended.
What it isArchetypos means first-moulded — the original from which impressions are struck. The word carries the whole doctrine inside it: what is stamped can be seen everywhere, and the die itself never appears in the record it leaves.
The FindingJung's "archetype" first appeared in 1919, in an English translation read in London — and the ancient pedigree now printed beneath it, Philo through Dionysius, was assembled thirty-five years later, in the 1954 revision of a 1934 lecture.
Teaching · 1912
The Shadow
Relative Evil, Absolute Evil
The hidden, rejected, or unacknowledged parts of our personality that we disown or project onto others.
What it isAion divides it in two and the division is the teaching. The personal shadow can be assimilated with effort; the archetypal shadow integrates with nothing at all. Modern usage collapses the pair, and promises for the second what Jung only offered for the first.
The FindingAion (1951) gives the shadow seven paragraphs, and §19 splits it in two — the personal shadow can be seen through "with a little self-criticism", while the shadow met "as an archetype" raises "the same difficulties as with anima and animus" and, at the limit, "a rare and shattering experience" of absolute evil — the half rarely carried over into the popular shadow-work literature.
- Carl Gustav JungAnalytical Psychology
- IndividuationThe Opposite of IndividualismAnalytical Psychology
- Shadow WorkThe Phrase Jung Never UsedModern Esotericism
- The AnimaFour Names, One ParagraphAnalytical Psychology
- The AnimusHer Lecture, His BookAnalytical Psychology
- The Archetype and the Archetypal ImageThe Lattice, Not the CrystalAnalytical Psychology
- The Gendering of Anima and AnimusThe Objection From InsideAnalytical Psychology
- The PersonaWorn, Not OwnedAnalytical Psychology
- The SelfWholeness Approached, Never ReachedAnalytical Psychology
- The ShadowRelative Evil, Absolute EvilAnalytical Psychology
- The Word ArchetypeBorrowed Word, Later PedigreeAnalytical Psychology