Jung's theory of the collective unconscious holds that beyond the personal unconscious lies a universal, shared unconscious containing innate archetypal patterns common to all humans, distinct from Freud's individually formed unconscious. Archetypes such as the Shadow and the Anima/Animus are proposed to recur across cultures in myth, dream, and religious symbolism.
Facts
Core ClaimA universal, shared collective unconscious contains innate archetypal patterns common to all humans, evidenced by recurring imagery across unrelated cultures and dreams. 1 Nature or Nurture Emphasis Collective Unconscious
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1. Collective unconscious
Wikimedia Foundationbody text
pre-existent forms, the archetypes
Basic explanation section
The term "collective unconscious" first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious".
Developed By: Carl Jung, Lead section
The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.
2. OpenStax: Psychology 2e: 11.3 Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney
OpenStaxSection: JungQuote, Section: Jung
Today, most Jungian scholars believe that the collective unconscious and archetypes are based on both innate and environmental influences, with the differences being in the role and degree of each (Sotirova-Kohli et al., 2013).
Collective unconscious (Wikipedia)
Belongs To School: Analytical Psychology, Article textQuote, Belongs To School: Analytical Psychology, Article text
The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Is Carl Jung's well-known paranoid-schizophrenic patient case, which he used as evidence for the collective unconscious, authentic as reported?
Historian and Jung critic Richard Noll has argued against the authenticity of this case, which remains a contested piece of evidence Jung offered for archetypal patterns appearing independent of a patient's personal exposure to the source material.
What would resolve this Independent archival verification of Jung's original case notes and contemporaneous records against his published account.
History of psychiatry / archival scholarshipCollective unconscious
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Core Claim
Historian and Jung critic Richard Noll has argued against the authenticity of Jung's well-known paranoid-schizophrenic patient case, a key piece of evidence Jung offered for archetypal patterns independent of personal exposure; Popperian scholar Ray Scott Percival separately argues the theory's strongest claims are not falsifiable, and shared human patterns could arise from shared environment rather than an inherited collective unconscious.
A dissenting reading, from Richard NollCollective unconscious, Wikimedia Foundation
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