The author of this book is Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, psychoanalyst and founder of analytical psychology. He is a believer of Freud, a staunch defender of psychoanalytic theory, and even appointed as Freud's successor. Unfortunately, the two men broke up because of the conflict of views, and finally parted ways, and Jung founded his own school of analytical psychology. On the basis of inheriting Freud's ideological system, he made a bold breakthrough, corrected Freud's mistake of attaching too much importance to sexual desire and impulse, and became a generation of psychologists with achievements no less than Freud's. His theoretical system has a great and far-reaching influence on later psychology, social science and even literary theory.
About this book
This book contains 12 papers on Jung's archetypal concept and its relationship with the collective unconscious. This book expounds the cornerstone of Jung's psychoanalytic system-collective unconsciousness and prototype, and outlines the relationship between unconsciousness and personality development process for us. Jung is not only an authority in psychoanalysis, but also a well-read person. He not only has a very in-depth study of western religions and theology, but also dabbles in mysticism such as alchemy and astrology, and even has an extraordinary understanding of the theories of Buddhism and Taoism in the East. This also directly led to a large number of widely quoted and unconstrained content in his works. This book also reflects his usual style.
Core content
Understand how Jung defined consciousness and unconsciousness, get a glimpse of the two cornerstones of Jung's theoretical system and the essence of his thought-collective unconsciousness and prototype, and see how these mysterious and profound psychological concepts have an unusual impact on our lives.
First of all, about what is unconscious.
In psychology, consciousness refers to the part of people's spiritual world that can be directly perceived by individuals. Its function is thinking, feeling, feeling and intuition. For example, your feelings about the surrounding environment, your inner thoughts, and the emotional reactions caused by these things all belong to the category of consciousness. Correspondingly, unconsciousness refers to the part that exists in people's minds but cannot be realized and perceived by us. Although it is not perceived by us, it affects our behaviors and decisions all the time and is the internal driving force of the spiritual world. Most mental activities are unconscious, and the conscious part is actually only a fragment and part of the whole spiritual life. Unconsciousness will have a great influence on people's conscious behavior, such as inexplicable fear, casual slip of the tongue and slip of the pen, and dreaming some incomprehensible dreams. Behind these phenomena are actually unconscious functions.
Second, the difference between individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness.
In Freud's theory, unconsciousness always comes from personal experience and is an acquired existence. However, in his own medical practice, Jung found that the unconscious psychological content reflected by many patients could not be explained from his personal experience and acquired experience. On the other hand, he also found that some patients' unconscious content has a lot in common with historical myths and legends and literary works, but the patients themselves actually know nothing about it. Based on these observations, Jung came to the conclusion that unconsciousness not only comes from personal experience, but also has an innate basis beyond personal acquisition. Therefore, he put forward his own hierarchy theory of spiritual structure, which divided the spiritual world into three levels: consciousness, individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness.
The so-called personal unconsciousness is what Freud called unconsciousness, that is, the collection of psychological contents that personal experiences can not accommodate in consciousness because of forgetting and depression. "Collective unconsciousness" is transpersonal, not acquired by individuals, but inherited by race. It is the psychological precipitation in the process of biological evolution and cultural development, and it is the psychological basis that * * * is born and exists in everyone's heart. The collective unconscious is not the part forgotten by consciousness, but the part that the individual is always unaware of.
Third, about the basic composition of the collective unconscious.
Instinct is a person's innate ability, not acquired, and it is an important driving force of psychological activities. Jung pointed out that the existence of instinct not only proves the collective unconscious, but also constitutes one of the contents of the collective unconscious. The prototype is the original image of * * * buried deep in our consciousness and deposited in our collective unconscious. Prototype and instinct determine each other and correspond to each other. Prototype is the self-portrait of instinct and the embodiment of instinct. Both * * * isomorphic became the collective unconscious.
4. What are the main prototypes?
Jung found that the recurring image of * * * in ancient human mythology, religion, art, philosophy and all other cultural fields existed in different nationalities and cultures. He believes that this is not out of nothing, nor is it a coincidence, but because this form was originally buried deep in our consciousness and precipitated in our collective unconscious. This is what he called "prototype". Archetypes can be people, such as heroes, wise men and witches, or things, such as the earth, mandala patterns, or a process. There are as many prototypes as there are typical life situations. Therefore, the prototype is the main content of the collective unconscious, and the common images in myths and legends and literary works are the psychological projection of the prototype. The representative prototype is the "shadow" prototype, which is the lowest level of personality, including basic animal nature, immoral desires and emotions that cannot be fully expressed in social life.
The prototype of "personality mask" means that the outermost layer of personality covers up the illusion of self, just like the mask worn by actors, which expresses self according to the expectations of others and society and makes a person play a role that is not his own. Anima refers to a female trait in men's minds and animus, that is, the male trait in women's psychology. This clever old man is the embodiment of primitive wisdom. Mothers include the positive aspects of being as broad-minded as the earth and full of motherhood as the earth nurtures everything, as well as the negative aspects caused by fear and resistance to the supreme authority and dominance of mothers. Children symbolize the embodiment of self-potential and potential strength.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) about the development of personality
Jung believes that everyone's personality is a whole from birth. It contains all the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of a person, whether consciously or unconsciously. This whole personality is called "self" by him. People are born with a complete spirit, but at first most of them are submerged in unconscious water. Jung's individualization process is a process in which people constantly know themselves and form self-awareness. What we have to do in our whole life is to develop its diversity, coherence and coordination to the maximum extent on the basis of this whole personality, and be careful not to split it into scattered and conflicting systems. However, modern people, especially westerners, pay too much attention to self-awareness and rationality, making them mistakenly think that consciousness is the only content of the spirit, rejecting and abandoning the unconscious, and trying to eliminate the influence of the unconscious to the maximum extent. However, the unconscious cannot be eliminated, and it always exists in our spiritual world. The result of excessive repression is to vent through some abnormal channels. Facing the unconscious impulse, the best way to deal with it is to channel rather than hinder the energy released by instinct, so that the conscious self and the unconscious can work in harmony and cooperate closely, so that individuals can devote themselves to more enjoyable and creative activities. It is also in this process of constant conflict and cooperation between consciousness and unconsciousness that our spirit will be truly forged into a complete "individual".
line
"Collective unconsciousness" is transpersonal, which is not acquired by individuals, but inherited by race. It is the psychological precipitation in the process of biological evolution and cultural development, and it is the psychological basis that * * * is born and exists in everyone's heart. The collective unconscious is not the part forgotten by consciousness, but the part that the individual is always unaware of.
Even unrelated people often have similarities in their legends, such as the woman who brought disaster, the wise man who pointed out the maze, the hero who saved the world and so on. These symbols of * * *, that is, what he called primitive images, fully show that human beings have a psychological soil of * * *, an experience of * * * in ancient life, that is, what he called "collective unconsciousness".
If consciousness is an island above sea level, then the individual unconsciousness is the part below the sea surface that sinks into the water surface and emerges from time to time with the tide, while the collective unconsciousness is the part where the bottom of the island never emerges from the water surface or even connects with the vast seabed.
People are born with a complete spirit, but at first most of them are submerged in unconscious water.
We should face up to the existence and significance of unconsciousness and realize that unconsciousness is not only a collection of dirty and immoral primitive desires, but also a source of creativity and vitality. Unconsciousness not only connects the past, but also points to the future.
Author: Feng Jun
Brain map: Ada