Jung was a psychiatrist. He was a contemporary of Freud. However while he built on the theories of Freud a lot of his conclusions were a very different. One concept he was particularly interested in was what is known as the collective unconscious and what we now know as Jungian or Jung symbols.
Jung believed in the theory of the collective unconscious. What this means is that from birth people from pretty much any culture have certain concepts that anyone could understand. You may not be able to speak the same language or may have different characters but essentially everyone will know what those symbols mean.
What Jung noticed is that a lot of people seemed to see the same kind of images recur over and over. For example in most cultures fear can be personified in the form of a scarecrow and a lot of cultures recognise the fox as a symbol of cunning. It is these symbols that help people make sense of the world.
This is why even though a lot of folk or fairy tales may have different characters or be written different languages they often follow a certain structure. At the centre of the story is a hero and this hero is often a representation of the self. Other archetypes such as the wise mentor, the corrupting trickster and so forth symbolise the path people go on.
This philosophy has been especially influential when it comes to story telling. The story analyst Joseph Campbell built on the philosophy of Jung in his work The Hero of A Thousand Faces and this in turn would go on to influence storywriters in literature, stage and screen.
One big crucial difference between how the Jungian psychologists interpreted symbols and how Freudians interpreted them is the idea of the shadow. While Freud saw this purely in terms of sexuality the Jungian interpretation is arguably more complex. There is the idea that in effect our so called darker sides are merely a part of a whole and are not necessarily good or bad. Jung essentially argued that men have a female side and women have a male side as well and there could be good or bad in both.
In both Jungian and Freudian interpretations there is a need to acknowledge that darker instincts should not be ignored. The danger of repression is that it results in developing neuroses and could potentially damage mental health. Equally a person who continually lashes out or indulges could equally harm themselves and others.
There is a wide array of archetypes and there are a number of sites that list them all. In simple terms all of them stem from people looking to understand themselves and what is happening in the world around them. It is worth looking online to learn about Jungian theories and articles in more depth as well as offering a new way to interpret the stories that you love as well as providing psychological insight.
Jung believed in the theory of the collective unconscious. What this means is that from birth people from pretty much any culture have certain concepts that anyone could understand. You may not be able to speak the same language or may have different characters but essentially everyone will know what those symbols mean.
What Jung noticed is that a lot of people seemed to see the same kind of images recur over and over. For example in most cultures fear can be personified in the form of a scarecrow and a lot of cultures recognise the fox as a symbol of cunning. It is these symbols that help people make sense of the world.
This is why even though a lot of folk or fairy tales may have different characters or be written different languages they often follow a certain structure. At the centre of the story is a hero and this hero is often a representation of the self. Other archetypes such as the wise mentor, the corrupting trickster and so forth symbolise the path people go on.
This philosophy has been especially influential when it comes to story telling. The story analyst Joseph Campbell built on the philosophy of Jung in his work The Hero of A Thousand Faces and this in turn would go on to influence storywriters in literature, stage and screen.
One big crucial difference between how the Jungian psychologists interpreted symbols and how Freudians interpreted them is the idea of the shadow. While Freud saw this purely in terms of sexuality the Jungian interpretation is arguably more complex. There is the idea that in effect our so called darker sides are merely a part of a whole and are not necessarily good or bad. Jung essentially argued that men have a female side and women have a male side as well and there could be good or bad in both.
In both Jungian and Freudian interpretations there is a need to acknowledge that darker instincts should not be ignored. The danger of repression is that it results in developing neuroses and could potentially damage mental health. Equally a person who continually lashes out or indulges could equally harm themselves and others.
There is a wide array of archetypes and there are a number of sites that list them all. In simple terms all of them stem from people looking to understand themselves and what is happening in the world around them. It is worth looking online to learn about Jungian theories and articles in more depth as well as offering a new way to interpret the stories that you love as well as providing psychological insight.
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