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Jung offers literary critics a lot to think about as
they read the psychological experiences of
characters in literature.
We’ll get to his concept of archetypes, which has
literary roots as well as implications for our
reading
Perhaps most importantly for our study of Fifth
Business, Robertson Davies held a lifelong interest
for Jung’s work. There are many parallels
between Davies’ fictional characters and Jung’s
concepts of the self.
Carl Jung was a psychologist trained by Sigmund Freud, but veered off from
aspects of Freud’s teachings to form his own school of psychology.
What do you know about Freud? Make a list...
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Freud believed that we have a conscious and an unconscious, and that
like an iceberg, there’s way more beneath the surface than above it.
Freud believed that we need to understand and know our
UNCONSCIOUS – the drives that guide our thoughts and actions that we
do not perceive on the surface, but that guide us and reveal themselves
in unconscious ways like dreams
Specifically, Jung differed with Freud’s insistence on infantile sexuality
(he thought Freud placed too much emphasis on sex)
They differed as well on the method of therapy and their concept of the
soul
Jung believes that the soul is mysterious... This idea is important in Fifth
Business, so we’ll discuss it later...
In Greek mythology, Oedipus is
the man who was fated to kill his
father and marry his mother. He
was a good guy, but because did
not know his identity, he took the
wrong path in life. Once on that
path, heroic characteristics
couldn’t help him to escape his
fate...
Freud believed that all children go through an
Oedipal phase in which children love their
opposite-sex parent while they loathe and
wish for the death of their same-sex parent.
Freud and Jung seemed to
have had issues with their
mothers.
 My children won’t have
these. They’re very welladjusted. Their mother isn’t
nuts... A little controlling,
perhaps, but things really
work out better that way.
 The feminist in me can’t
help but point out that these
psychiatrists spend a lot of
time blaming mothers for a
lot of crap...
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Jung believed that the goal of psychic development
was the path to the centre, to individuation.
• Individuation means understanding the self, the
totality of the individual, conscious and unconscious,
which carries an individual’s sense of meaning and
purpose as he or she moves towards it.
• As seen in our study of “Long Day’s Journey Into
Night,” not understanding one’s self doesn’t help a
person to escape. Jung and Davies, O’Neill and
Bistolas all believe that we need to examine our lives
and ourselves to become what Jung called
“individuated” and what Oprah calls “our authentic
self.”
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Thinking
Tells you what a thing IS
Intuition
Sensation
Tells you where it’s come
from and where it’s going
Tells you something exists
Feeling
Tells you whether it’s good or not
A person’s conscious orientation will be towards one of these
four: thinking/feeling; intuition/sensation. Its opposite will
then be unconscious.
To become individuated, a person needs to balance their
unconscious. For example, a feeling boy may be pressured
by his thinking father, creating unhappiness and crisis;
therefore mental and physical health depend on :
a) The development of the neglected function; and
b) An awareness of the four types at work in one’s self, to
achieve a rounded personality
While you lean towards one of the four functions of the psyche
(thinking/feeling; sensation/intuition), you’re also either an:
a) Introvert (motivated from within; directed by external and
subjective factors and relationships)
b) Extrovert (motivated from the outside; directed by external
and objective factors and relationships)
So there are 8 possibilities in total.
Knowing where you stand helps you to see how you’ll
respond to archetypal figures.
Jung believed that we each have a personal unconscious and a collective
unconscious.
The collective part of our unconscious is inherited and universal – it goes
beyond the personal and the individual. Our collective unconscious is
shared by all of us – it is a series of images and ideas that we hold from
birth.
• Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious was formed by his study of
literature and mythology.
• In myths across the globe, there are figures that appear that hold the
same meaning: figures like mother, father, light, dark, the hero, the
maiden, the wise old man, the trickster – Jung calls these common
figures archetypes.
• Because these archetypes appear in all cultures’ myths and stories, Jung
believed that these archetypes are part of our collective unconscious.
He believes that there is knowledge common to us all, hardwired in our
brains, that helps us to understand the world around us and our
relationship to other people.
Collective unconscious is, as we
saw in the previous slide, made up
of instincts and archetypes.
 How we apprehend a situation
(archetype) determines our
impulse to act (instinct).
 And, inversely, our impulse to act
(instinct) determines how we
understand a situation
(archetype).
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At this point, you may be thinking it isn’t.
Worse, you may not be thinking about this
lecture at all. Worse still, you may be texting a
friend about your plight in boring English class
then giving me the “what?” or “wasn’t me” looks
you seem to have mastered. (clearly not written
for you AP keeners!!)
But the truth is, you relate to archetypal images
every day. Advertisers use them. Television and
film writers use them. And they impact the way
you relate to one another.
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Archetypes are original models after which
similar things are patterned.
They are universal; everybody inherits basic
archetypal images.
These images are not like fully developed
photographs. They are more like negatives
that are developed by experience.
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Among the archetypes we have are images of
birth, rebirth, death, power, magic, the hero,
the child, the trickster, God, the demon, the
wise old man, the earth mother, the giant,
the sun, the moon, wind, river, fire, animals.
They can form combinations – for example, a
hero archetype and a demon archetype can
result in a “ruthless leader.”
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Search for paradise,
happiness;
renewel/reenter
promised land
Seek sense of
wholeness, purity
Peace comes from
inner values.
Shadow: denial and
repression
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Seeks fulfilment and
authenticity
Seeks to avoid
restlessness/boredom
Hitting the open road /
exploring new territory
Seeks individuality &
fulfilment
Shadow: being so alienated
one can’t find a way to fit in
Seeks the Truth
Intelligence used
to understand
the world and
ourselves
 Shadow:
dogmatism,
ivory tower,
disconnection
from reality
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Prove self worth through
courageous and difficult
action;
Mastery of skill and self
improves the world;
One should strive to be as
strong and courageous as
one is capable of being;
E.g. Soldier, knight, young
entrepeneur
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Will need a hero
Virtuous (virginal), beautiful & innocent
Loyal and trustworthy but needs help
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Nurturing; allows our
survival
tender, loving, caring or...
Domineering – like Dunny’s
mother
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Seeks
revenge/revolution
Goal is to destroy
what’s not working
Disrupts the status quo
when change is needed
Shadow is criminal or
evil behaviour
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Goal is leadership, to
create a successful
family/business/gove
rnment/country
Exerts control over
others and leads
them
Shadow is tyranny or
manipulation
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Archetypes are an unlearned tendency to
experience things in a certain way
An archetype has no form of its own, but acts
as an organizing principle on the things we
see or do
the existence of universal contentless forms
that channel experiences and emotions,
resulting in recognizable and typical patterns
of behavior with certain probable outcomes
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The mask or facade that one exhibits publicly,
with the intention of presenting a favourable
impression so society will accept him.
The persona archetype is also known as the
conformity archetype
The central archetype in the collective unconscious. It is the
archetype of order, organization, and unification. It unites
the personality, giving it a sense of ‘oneness.’ the self is not
doing its job properly if a person feels “out of sorts” or
discontented or worse, as if he or she is “going to pieces.”
A well-functioning self allows one to feel harmony with the
world. The ultimate goal of every personality is “selfhood” or
self-realization. Achieving self-realization is rare; the ego
must cooperate. Everything must become conscious in
order for a person to become individuated.
The “inward” face of one’s personality; for men it’s the anima
and for women it’s the animus. The animus archetype is the
masculine side of the female psyche; the anima archetype is
the feminine side of the male psyche. We develop our
understanding of our anima/animus through continuous
exposure to the opposite sex over the generations. A welladjusted person is able to understand and express his or her
anima or animus – we need to know our opposite. If a man
exhibits only masculine traits, his feminine traits remain
unconscious and thus undeveloped and primitive. Likewise,
iff a women exhibits only feminine traits, her masculine side
remains unconscious, undeveloped & primitive
This archetype represents one’s own gender and
influences a person’s relationships with his own sex.
The shadow is the “animal” nature within us. It is
powerful, instinctive, spontaneous, creative,
emotional, insightful. It is often associated with the
evil within us. The shadow needs to be “tamed” for
ordinary functioning in society; however, a person
who totally suppresses the shadow will live a
shallow and spiritless life.
The hero is a main archetype. He is the main personality and the defeater of evil
dragons. Basically, he represents the ego – we do tend to identify with the hero
of the story – and is often engaged in fighting the shadow, in the form of
dragons and monsters. The hero is often unschooled and unknowing in the ways
of the unconscious. He can sometimes seem really dumb. He is often out on a
quest – to seek some truth or object, to rescue a maiden, to pursue the
acquisition of party supplies and refreshments on a Saturday night – and faces
many obstacles along the way.
Like Luke Skywalker, for example. He’s out to rescue the maiden at first – Princess
Leah. By the time Luke & Leah figure out they’re related, she has become the
archetypal figure of the anima, discovering the powers of the force – the
collective unconscious – and becoming an equal partner with Luke.
The hero is guided by the wise old man, a form of the animus, and reveals to the
hero the nature of the collective unconscious. That’s Obi Wan Kenobi. And, of
course, Yoda. As Luke matures, they die and become a part of him.
Darth Vadar, the “dark father” is the shadow and master of the Dark Side. When
Luke accepts the dark side and comes to know his shadow, he is able more fully
to master the force – he becomes individuated.
The same story has been told and retold over and over again – in films like Star Wars,
in stories and myths and religious texts that go across all cultures and countries
and continents.
The ego (light, fragile and precious) must be
preserved. It gives you your sense of purpose
and identity.
The shadow (dark, animal and primitive) is not
“bad.” It can vitalize our lives if we honestly
face up to it.
Whatever is wrong with the world is wrong in
yourself, so you have to face what’s in your
shadow.
The classic example is Dr.
Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. You
can’t ignore the dark
being within you. As
Dunny points out, there
are more than two sides
to every being.
What are the main components of
Dunny’s PSYCHE?? Is he thinking or
feeling? Does he follow his
intuition or his sensation? Is he an
extrovert or an introvert? What are
the components of his shadow?
What about Percy Boyd Staunton?
Thinking? Feeling? Intuition?
Sensation? What does he keep
hidden from others in his shadow??