Home
Doors
Essays2007
Essays2008 Essays2009 Essays2010
Wisdom
Gallery
Links
Bios          Contact

    The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious

                          Final APA Annotated Bibliography

 03/28/2004

 Alan Schneider

1) Davis, C. (2004). Archetypes as Defined by Carl Jung. Retrieved March 8, 2004, from http://www.acs.appstate.edu/~davisct/nt/jung.html.   Charles T. Davis III received a Ph.D. from Emory University in Religious Studies in 1967, and is currently a full professor specializing in New Testament Studies at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Davis’ recent seminars include Symbols and Healing and Jesus in the Gnostic Documents. In Archetypes as Defined by Carl Jung, the author first provides an extended definition of the term archetype, as “a preconscious psychic predisposition that enables a (man) to react in a human manner” (p. 01). This is followed by a discussion of the psychological origins of archetypes as stemming from instinctual trends in the deepest region of the unconscious mind, which Jung referred to as the collective unconscious, in observation of the universality of archetype images across cultures. The author also provides a brief summary of some of the major archetype images, including the Shadow, the Divine Couple, the Child, and the Self (or Soul). This article is short, and very basic, not providing detailed descriptions. It has a mildly theological bias, and is apparently intended for lay audiences having a primary Christian religious orientation. 

2) De Laszlo, V. (1959)(Ed.), The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung. New York, New York, Random House. This is a well known anthology of Jung’s work, edited by Jung historian and translator Violet Staub de Laszlo. The sections featured include: Symbols of Transformation, On the Nature of the Psyche, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, On the Nature of Dreams, and Psychology and Religion. The theoretically most important aspect of this literary anthology of Jung’s works is Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, because Jung makes his initial thesis about the nature and existence of the archetypes and also makes his observations of the theory regarding the existence of the collective unconscious as the operating basis of the mind. Although this is a full book of English language translations, and comprehensive in scope, Jung’s many articles are neither mentioned by De Laszlo in her preface, nor included herein. She appears to have been substantially only an informed translator, although evidently well educated, and sophisticated in psychological perception. This book is necessarily oriented toward the people Jung was speaking to: mental health professionals working in the field, and is quite technical.  

3) Haule, J. (1986). Soul loss and restoration: A study in counter transference. In Gibson, Lathrop, and Stern (Ed.), Carl Jung and Soul Psychology (pp.95-1070). New York, New York, Haworth Press. John R. Haule received his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University, and has been an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University in Boston. As of the publication date of this book, he was the president of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts, and a member of the training board of the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston. In Soul Loss, he discusses the possible nature of the Soul as a center of human experience and consciousness, and then the meaning of Soul loss as the loss of the will to live, related to severe depression. The therapy for this condition is described as the formation of a sympathetic bond with the patient by the therapist, enabling the perception of the patient’s depressed state by the therapist. In this state of combined experience, the stable perception of the therapist enables the recovery of the patient from the depression. This is an article in a book of articles on Jungian theory, and is somewhat technical in the portrayal of information. The term counter-transference is used to describe the therapy noted above, for example, but is not substantially explained in the text. The theory of operation of Soul loss is plausible and interesting, as is the theory of treatment, but little real data is supplied in substantiation. This is a piece that is clearly written for the Jungian mental health professional. 

4) Hillman, J. (1985). Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account. Dallas, Texas, Spring Publications. James Hillman received a Ph. D. from the University of Zurich in 1959, becoming the first Director of Studies of the original Zurich C.G. Jung Institute. He returned to Dallas, Texas in 1978, and became a Founding Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. The author has produced over fifteen major papers on psychological theory through 1989, and has received numerous honors in equally numerous professional organizations. In Archetypal Psychology, Hillman traces the development of the concept of archetypes from their inception (with the work of Carl Jung), through various modern interpretations, then addresses the nature of the mind as an image generating mechanism. This latter includes the generation of archetypal images from the collective unconscious, including the Soul image as both a literal metaphor and a poetic fantasy within personal consciousness. Polytheistic religion and its relationship to pathology are considered, concluding with an examination of Eros, seen as the life instinct, and the relationship of Eros to the esthetic (poetic) structure of the personality. This synopsis of Jungian concepts is presented for the lay reader, and there are many new concepts generated and presented by Hillman in the text, for example the poetic, as opposed to scientific, nature of the mind. Although Hillman advocates this as a therapeutic model, no substantiation in terms of resultant numerical data is provided to support that theory.  

5) Hillman, J. (1986). Soul and spirit. In Gibson, Lathrop, and Stern (Ed.), Carl Jung and Soul Psychology (pp.29-36). New York, New York, Haworth Press.   In this article Hillman addresses the question of the nature of the Soul as a definable psychological phenomenon. The often preferred term for this elusive, and yet omnipresent, entity in psychological theory is psyche, and refers to the totality of the mind, i.e. all mental events occurring on all levels, whether perceived through direct  experience or not. In particular, Hillman considers the Soul as connected to the dimension of spirit, and the Jungian archetypes as the instinctual elements that structure human experience along quasi-spiritual lines. The Soul is referred to as an entity having symbolic valence – not identifying  any literal phenomenon – while at the same time referring to the entire class of spiritual experiences and phenomena, and connecting the psyche to them through the action of the archetypes as a psychological root of human experience. This is, again, an interesting conceptual approach to the mind, but little substantiation is provided for the reader. Hillman seems to have a tendency to write for the lay (popular) audience that is evident in otherwise technical anthologies, such as Carl Jung and Soul Psychology.

6) Hillman, J. (1989). A Blue Fire.  New York, New York, Harper Collins.   In this anthology of psychological work, Hillman is seen to be a seminal and prolific writer on the subject of Soul psychology, stemming from the concept of the poetic, or image generating and nurturing, function of the human mind. The psychological foundations of polytheism, the psychological roots of quasi-angelic manifestations in the psyche, intercultural mythology, and the conditions that both sustain and debilitate the Soul as the psychological entity directly involved in the process of recognition of the divine nature of both the subjective inner, and objective outer, worlds, are investigated in A Blue Fire. The  mental images by which the mind functions, including the many Jungian archetypes, are addressed by Hillman as primarily esthetic and poetic (as opposed to literally scientific) phenomena, thus re-visioning psychology as a subtle healing art, rather than inflexible scientific doctrine. What is seen here is representative of a current trend in therapy across the board toward conceptualizing mental disorders as spiritual disorders that can be treated in that context. This is a very new approach (at least in terms of the theory involved) and there is not a substantial amount of data available regarding the statistical success of the methodology used. The author’s tendency to write for the lay audience is still present here, but the book-length nature of the work makes this seem more appropriate and coherent.  

7) Houston, J. (1986). Pathos and soul making. In Gibson, Lathrop, and Stern (Ed.), Carl Jung and Soul Psychology (pp.73-81). New York, New York, Haworth Press.  Dr. Jean Houston is a Ph. D. psychologist, specializing in Jungian theory, and has served on the faculties of philosophy, psychology, and religion at Columbia University, Hunter College, Marymount College, and the University of California. The author has produced numerous papers and several books, including Sacred Psychology, was elected Distinguished Educator of the Year by the National Teacher-Educator Association, and has been a Past President of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. In Pathos and Soul Making, Houston develops and expands upon the theory that myths are literally mental blue prints for therapeutic action, and can be elaborated as particularly effective therapeutic tools for the treatment of mental disorders. Reference is made to the work of James Hillman at several points in her article, in the observation that myths have their own patterns, symptoms, and symptomologies, and in the explanation of the meaning of the Crucifixion myth. The author has employed therapy for emotional trauma through archetypal healing on the archetypal level, using the mythologies of numerous ancient and modern cultures as therapeutic tools. With the observation being made that, although there has been evident successful application of the Hillman theories by Houston in practical therapy, there is still not much substantiation provided. This article is substantially more technically oriented, and directed toward the Jungian mental health professional therapy provider.           

8) Jung, C. (1964)(Ed.). Approaching the unconscious. In Man and his Symbols (pp.18-103). Garden City, New York, Doubleday.   Carl Gustov Jung was one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis: his work in this area is perhaps second in significance only to that of Sigmund Freud. Jung received his degree in medicine from the University of Basal, Switzerland, in 1900, and completed a dissertation on schizophrenia in 1902, at the University of Zurich. He subsequently worked at the Burgholtzi Psychiatric Hospital (affiliated with Zurich University) until 1909. Jung has authored at least ten books and fifteen articles on various aspects of psychoanalytic theory, and his work has been translated into over twenty languages from the original German texts. Where Freud developed the theory of sexual repression as the root cause of mental illness, Jung eventually came to the conclusion that another series of phenomena present in the unconscious mind were also affecting the mental stability of human beings. He called these additional factors archetypes, and defined them as instinctual forces, acting at the same level as the Freudian libido, that were differentiated into a series of universal psychological trends related to the ongoing survival of the species. Under conditions of sufficient stress (and sometimes under apparently stress free circumstances as well) the archetypes emerge into conscious recognition in the form of symbols that are intercultural in character. These are called archetypal symbols, and include the Father, the Mother, the Shaman (or Healer), the Warrior, the Wheel, the Child, and – possibly of greatest importance in modern history – the Hero. The Hero is (among other things) an image of the Potent Soul – a fully spiritually functional psyche with an active archetypal connection.  And the archetypes are also interactive in specific relationships with each other. These relationships are frequently expressed in the form of myths and fables (which almost always have a heavily psychological foundation). Even when an individual is able to resolve his or her sexual neuroses, the result is still not the creation of a balanced human being – although this is an important therapeutic step – because there remains the more comprehensive task of accessing the deeper meaning of life beyond physical gratification. This is the arena in which the Soul functions as the primary spiritual archetype, and core indicator of mental health.

                         Jung was the founder of the analytical school of psychology, stressing the need to carefully assess the patient’s behavior as a series of interrelated complexes, displaying both external symptoms and extensive internal (and frequently subconscious) etiology. This method of diagnosis has persisted virtually unchanged to the modern day. Although focused in the traditional medical treatment model, the theory of Archetypes has expanded into the popular cultural venue, particularly as expressed in the Hero image, the virtually universal theme of modern cinema. The Hero typically experiences a journey of consciousness, beginning with a departure from the circumstances of origin, undergoing an initiation into some phase of special knowledge and experience, and then a return to the previous life to perform some service of great significance. This fundamental theme has been repeatedly used in modern film and literature, including the many Star Wars productions, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Matrix trilogy, and many, many other titles. The impact of Jungian theory has literally permeated every strata of contemporary living by defining the symbols through which we subsequently experience life.

             Return to Top