Archetypes In Dream Context
Along with the psychological differences among people, described as attitude and function types, there are commonalities in the psychic structure of all. Each personality is composed of some consciousness—the ego and the contents readily accessible to it—and a great deal that is unconscious, chiefly the shadow, the persona, and the anima or animus. Each of these contents often may appear as figures in dreams, and each is capable of endless variations, forms, and blendings.
...The shadow, animus, and anima were hypothesized originally by Jung at least partially on the basis of dreams. All of them, along with the Self, are likely to appear in dreams in personified form. The persona is likely to appear in the dream as the clothing or some other outward aspect of the dreamer. The image of the dreamer is known as the "dream ego”. And they'll figure in woman's dream is assumed to be an aspect of the animus; a female figure, of the shadow. In a man's dream the female and male figures belong to anima and shadow, respectfully.
M.A. Mattoon
Structural Archetypes
Ego
Jung sometimes uses the metaphor of a light in the darkness to describe what he means by ego. Imagine that you're walking in a forest at night and you can't see anything. It's totally dark around you. Then you light a match and use the match to light a candle. Now you can see a few things around you. You become aware of what's out there. The ego is like that: It is a light in the darkness of the unconscious psyche. Without an ego, we couldn't see anything in the darkness, especially of the inner world. We could not keep memories or feelings or thoughts in place. They would disappear as soon as they became manifest. The ego lights things up and allows you to see them more clearly and to keep them in your awareness. If you have a strong flashlight, you can see even further into the darkness of the forest around you. You can see trees and animals. You can differentiate your surroundings and orient yourself in your world. If you have a strong ego, you can see deeper into the inner world and the hidden aspects of the outer world. Your ability to perceive and to differentiate depends on the light supplied by the ego.
M. Stein
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The Ego is the 'I' of the dream. The ego is above all only a part of the Whole Self, and its conflict with other forces within the personality figures predominantly in dreams.
The most common abuse of the ego is for it to exaggerate its own separateness and engulf all other aspects of the Self. This leads to a rigid, distorted and materialistic outlook at the expense of what is equally real, though insubstantial - namely, the potential and spiritual realms. It also leads to egotism, difficulty in trusting others or relating to them, and too little loving acceptance. This onesidedness can be compensated for by making as much room as possible for dreams or any manifestations of the unconscious.
At the other extreme, the ego, which is basically the elaborate receptive organ for assessing reality (whether conscious or unconscious), may be in danger of being swallowed up by the ubiquitous dream state. It must be preserved against this regressive urge by objective self-criticism, differentiation of the unconscious by constant observation, as well as attention, conscientiousness and patience, all of which strengthen the ego.
Every person sprang from an anonymous unity with Nature (in the womb) and must return to it, but with a difference: to be pure nature, but conscious of it. Therefore, consciousness must defend its reason without letting the imagination and unconscious atrophy.
Normally, to achieve the proper and realistic balance, the sacrifice of the ego is required, for the ego is full of delusions and limitations, unable to see beyond its own standpoint and outlook to the reality of the Other.
T. Chetwynd
Persona
The term derives from the Latin word for the mask worn by actors in classical times. Hence, persona refers to the mask or face a person puts on to confront the world. Persona can refer to gender identity, a stage of development (such as adolescence), a social status, a job or profession. Over a lifetime, many personas will be worn and several may be combined at anyone moment. Jung's conception of the persona is of an archetype, meaning in this context that there is an inevitability and ubiquity to persona. In any society, a means of facilitating relationship and exchange is required; this function is partly carried out by the personas of the individuals involved. Different cultures will establish different criteria for persona and there will be alteration and evolution over time since the underlying archetypal pattern is susceptible to infinite variation. Sometimes, the persona is referred to as the 'social archetype', involving all the compromises appropriate to living in a community.
It follows that persona is not to be thought of as inherently pathological or false. There is a risk of pathology if a person identifies too closely with his/her persona. This would imply a lack of awareness of much beyond social role (lawyer, analyst, laborer), or gender role (mother), and also a failure to take account of maturation (for instance, an apparent failure to adapt to having grown up). Persona identification leads to a form of psychological rigidity or brittleness; the unconscious will tend to erupt into consciousness rather than emerging in a manageable way. The ego, when it is identified with the persona, is capable only of an external orientation. It is blind to internal events and hence unable to respond to them. It follows that it is possible to remain unconscious pf one's persona.
These last comments point to the place Jung assigned to persona in the structure of the psyche. That was as a mediator between the ego and the external world (in much the same way as Anima and animus mediate between the ego and the internal world). Persona and Anima/Animus can therefore be thought of as opposites.
Whereas persona is concerned with conscious and collective adaptation, Anima/Animus are concerned with adaptation to that which is personal, interior and individual.
A. Samuels
The formation of the façade personality represents a considerable achievement on the part of conscience. Without its aid, morality and convention, the social life of the community and the ethical ordering of society would never have been possible in the first place. The formation of the persona is, in fact, as necessary as it is universal. The persona, the mask, what one passes for and what one appears to be, in contrast to one's real individual nature, corresponds to one's adaptation to the requirements of the age, of one's personal environment, and of the community. The persona is the cloak and the shell, the community. The persona is the cloak and the shell, the armor and the uniform, behind which and within which the individual conceals himself—from himself, often enough, as well as from the world. It is the self-control which hides what is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, the acceptable façade behind which the dark and strange, eccentric, secret and uncanny side of our nature remains invisible.
E. Neumann
Anima / Animus
Buried within our unconscious lies another figure that holds the neglected sides of our masculinity or femininity. One hundred years ago as Carl Jung was developing these theories, gender was more rigidly defined within society. It was seldom tolerated in the Victorian age for men to show much of their feminine side or vice versa. Thus, a man who went through life embodying mostly masculine qualities remained unaware of an undeveloped and unconscious feminine figure in his psyche that Jung called the anima. It is through the anima that a man is able to connect with his softer, more soulful and perhaps more creative side. When he tears up, swells with intense emotions or is more driven by the heart than the head, he is likely connecting to his anima. This anima might come to him in dreams as a sensual or soulful woman. She is his guide to this deeper place within his personality. She is pregnant with new life, heralding the future.
Traditionally, women had the opposite development in their identity. They were seldom encouraged to follow demanding careers and rarely pursued public roles of power and authority. An unconscious masculine figure typically lived hidden away, a personality with strength and determination and warrior-like power that Jung called the animus. In dreams, this figure often comes to women as a powerful male figure. In the second half of a woman's life, she might distance herself from an overly nurturing role and develop a second career with a stronger more forceful and public personality. At such times, her animus is surfacing.
This paradigm has shifted dramatically over the last few decades as gender became more fluid within individuals and society in general. Men are no longer forced nearly as much into solely masculine expressions of their personality just as women are allowed more freedom of expression. Nonetheless, whatever gender elements we incline toward, the opposite gender develops unconscious power within our anima/animus. Connecting to those opposite gender traits allows us to become more whole and complete.
M. Stein
The Self
While the Shadow and the Anima/Animus are those parts of a dreamer's potential that have been neglected so that the main characteristics of the personality can be realized, the Self is the archetype of the future, the potential development of the individual. It is like a figure beckoning from the future, necessarily of the same sex as the dreamer, but later becoming a symbol of wholeness including all aspects of his personality, past and future, active and passive, creative and receptive.
The symbols themselves may range from the highest to the lowest. Almost anything may serve as a symbol, but it will be easily recognizable as referring to the inner being because of the immense significance the dreamer attaches to it. Captain Ahab's quest for the white whale is an example of the quest for the Self, albeit in its negative, destructive aspect.
The Self is the higher spiritual man, the unknown and even unknowable quality of human nature itself, in its godlike universal and eternal aspect and in its individuality in time. The finite limited man, reaching out for the roots of his being - which are both his source and his goal - transcends the personal to embrace the whole range of nature and reality to its very depths. In a potential wholeness, which becomes the image of God within him, this unity is achieved by penetrating the sphere of inner being, which at the same time will permeate the worldly sphere of unique individual existence. In this way the potential self becomes the actual self; the seed grows into the whole integrated personality.
When the images of this archetype start cropping up in dreams, it will probably mark the beginning of the process of becoming whole, identifying with something other than our everyday selves, and also more enduring. This peculiarly intimate knowledge and experience of reality makes it spring into being in such a way that what lies beyond the ego becomes as vivid as personal experience; indeed, it so becomes personal experience that there is a danger of confusing the image of reality, the clear glass, the godlike, with the reality.
T. Chetwynd
Shadow
We spend our life until we're twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.
R. Bly
The shadow is the archetypal experience of the "other fellow," who in his strangeness is always suspect. It is the archetypal urge for a scapegoat, for someone to blame and attack in order to vindicate oneself and be justified; it is the archetypal experience of the enemy, the experience of blameworthiness which always adheres to the other fellow, since we are under the illusion of knowing ourselves and of having already dealt adequately with our own problems. In other words, to the extent that I have to be right and good, he, she, or they become the carriers of all the evil which I fail to acknowledge within myself.
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E.C. Whitmont
Shadow is usually the person whom the dreamer fails to recognize; a vague instinct figure, sometimes standing slightly behind the dreamer. The neglected side of the individual, that part of his potential that he never developed; sides of his character that have already been thwarted and frustrated; but above all, aspects never recognized.
Everybody has his individual Shadow, and it is nearly always the worst side of himself that he has failed to recognize. It is a rare exception for somebody to have such a dingy conscious view of himself that his Shadow is the personification of his better side. The sensitive altruist will have a brutal egotistic Shadow; the courageous individual will have a cowardly Shadow; the ever-loving person will have a bitter cantankerous Shadow; Dr Jekyll had Mr Hyde, and so on.
The encounter with the Shadow is usually painful: the shock of seeing ourselves as we really are at our worst. To face it humbly is to accept ourselves, and from that to see the rest of reality as it is. It is the way to greater understanding of others, new insights, particularly into the unconscious. It often revives normal instincts, appropriate reactions, creative impulses that have been condemned to conscious oblivion along with the evil and destructive sides of the personality.
It is important both to know the enemy and to cultivate and channel this vital energy that may otherwise erupt in a primitive and dangerous manner.
Think of the person you detest most in the world, mix in the worst characteristics of anyone else you know, and you have a fair idea of your own Shadow. It frequently appears in dreams in the image of people whom the dreamer dislikes or envies in waking life.
The dark side of ourselves is not destroyed by being ignored. On the contrary, it continues to seethe and fester below the surface, and normally requires little more than a change of circumstances to become only too apparent. One of the most obvious ways for people to reveal these inner qualities is by their obsessive and overemotional dislike of the same qualities in other people. To withdraw these 'projections', to recognize the inner conflict from which they arise, is one of the major works of maturing.
There are many stories about mistaking these projections for reality, attacking them and being destroyed by the resulting strife, war, etc., in the outside world, and by madness (paranoia) in the inner world.
T. Chetwynd
Other Archetypes
Mother / Father
Human beings are wired for "mother" and "father" and many other human relationships, as well as all forms of the human experience of the world. And though those in the outer world may not live up to the archetypal expectation, the archetype is nonetheless present. It is constant and universal in all of us. We, like the duckling that mistakes a cat for its mother, mistake our actual parents for the ideal patterns and potentials within us.
R. Moore & D. Gillette
Hero
Hero — a mythological motif that corresponds to man's unconscious Self; according to Jung, 'a quasi-human being who symbolises the ideas, forms and forces that mould or grip the Soul'. The image of the hero embodies man's most powerful aspirations and reveals the manner in which they are ideally realized.
The hero is a transitional being, a Mana Personality. His most approximate human form is the priest. Viewed intra-psychically, he represents the will and capacity to seek and undergo repeated transformations in pursuit of Wholeness or Meaning. Therefore at times he appears to be Ego; at other times, Self. Hero is the Ego-Self Axis personified.
The wholeness of a hero implies not only the ability to withstand but also to hold consciously the tremendous tension of opposites. This is achieved, according to Jung, by risking regression and purposefully exposing oneself to the danger of being 'devoured by the maternal monster', not once but many times, a lifelong process beginning in infancy. The maternal monster Jung identified as the collective psyche.
When discussing the hero motif, Jung was at pains to point out dangers. A figure of such magnitude cannot be incorporated in its fullness but requires most careful analytic delineation and differentiation. The value of the image lies in its intra-psychic functioning. The absurdity of identification with the image of the hero is apparent but, when confronted with the archetype, humor and a sense of proportion are often lacking. It is earnest pursuit of the hero image, when the destination is given precedence over the journey, that leads to over-intellectualization and an artificially conscious striving for goals that are only realizable gradually and by way of dialogue with one's own unconscious.
As Jung rightly foresaw, an archetype with such widespread collective appeal will inevitably find collective expression and attract projection. Because of its youthfulness as a profession and the dynamism of its early interpreters, analytical psychology has had to confront this problem. Because of the numinous attraction and contagion, the tendency has been to downplay the motif in recent years.
A. Samuels
Puer Aeternus
Puer aeternus is the name of a god of antiquity. The words themselves come from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and are there applied to the child-god in the Eleusinian mysteries. Ovid speaks of the child-god Iacchus, addressing him as puer aeternus and praising him in his role in these mysteries. In later times, the child-god was identified with Dionysus and the god Eros. He is the divine youth who is born in the night in this typical mother-cult mystery of Eleusis and who is a kind of redeemer. He is a god of vegetation and resurrection, the god of divine youth, corresponding to such oriental gods as Tammuz, Attis and Adonis. The title puer aeternus therefore means eternal youth, but we also use it sometimes to indicate a certain type of young man who has an outstanding mother complex and who therefore behaves in certain typical ways which I would like to characterize as follows.
In general, the man who is identified with the archetype of the puer aeternus remains too long in adolescent psychology; that is, all those characteristics that are normal in a youth of seventeen or eighteen are continued into later life, coupled in most cases with too great a dependence on the mother.
In Don Juanism there is another typical form of this same disturbance. In this case, the image of the mother—the image of the perfect woman who will give everything to a man and who is without any shortcomings—is sought in every woman. He is looking for a mother goddess, so that each time he is fascinated by a woman he has later to discover that she is an ordinary human being. Once he has been intimate with her the whole fascination vanishes and he turns away disappointed, only to project the image anew onto one woman after another. He eternally longs for the maternal woman who will enfold him in her arms and satisfy his every need. This is often accompanied by the romantic attitude of the adolescent. Generally great difficulty is experienced in adaptation to the social situation and, in some cases, there is a kind of false individualism, namely that, being something special, one has no need to adapt, for that would be impossible for such a hidden genius, and so on. In addition there is an arrogant attitude toward other people due to both an inferiority complex and false feelings of superiority. Such people also usually have great difficulty in finding the right kind of job, for whatever they find is never quite right or quite what they wanted. There is always “a hair in the soup.” The woman also is never quite the right woman; she is nice as a girlfriend, but—. There is always a “but” which prevents marriage or any kind of definite commitment.
M.L. von Franz
Scapegoat
Scapegoating, as it is currently practiced, means finding the one or ones who can be identified with evil or wrong-doing, blamed for it, and cast out from the community in order to leave the remaining members with a feeling of guiltlessness, atoned (at-one) with the collective standards of behavior. It both allocates blame and serves to "inoculate against future misery and failure" by evicting the presumed cause of misfortune. It gives the illusion that we can be "perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," if we take the proper prophylactic measures, do the right things.
In Jungian terms, scapegoating is a form of denying the shadow of both man and God. What is seen as unfit to conform with the ego ideal, or with the perfect goodness of God, is repressed and denied, or split off and made unconscious. It is called devilish. We do not consciously confess our faults and wayward impulses over the scapegoat's head in order to atone with the spiritual dimension as did the ancient Hebrews. We do not often enough even see that they are part of our psychological make-up. But we are acutely aware of their belonging to others, the scapegoats. We see the shadow clearly in projection. And the scapegoater feels a relief in being lighter, without the burden of carrying what is unacceptable to his or her ego ideal, without shadow. Those who are identified with the scapegoat, on the other hand, are identified with the unacceptable shadow qualities. They feel inferior, rejected and guilty. They feel responsible for more than their personal share of shadow. But both scapegoater and scapegoat feel in control of the mix of goodness and malevolence that belongs to reality itself.
S. Brinton Perera
Divine Child
Psychologically, the child is an image of both the irrecoverable past and an anticipation of future development.
Feelings of alienation or abandonment can constellate the child archetype. The effects are two-fold: the "poor-me" syndrome characteristic of the regressive longing for dependence, and, paradoxically, a desperate desire to be free of the past — the positive side of the Divine Child archetype.
D. Sharp
Thus, the Divine Child, modulated and enriched by life's experiences, becomes the King; the Precocious Child becomes the Magician; the Oedipal Child becomes the Lover; and the Hero becomes the Warrior.
R. Moore & D. Gillette
Trickster
When Jung first encountered the image of the Trickster, he was reminded of the tradition of carnival with its striking reversal of hierarchic order and medieval observances where the devil appeared as 'the ape of God'. He found in the Trickster a striking resemblance to the alchemical figures of Mercurius with his fondness for sly jokes and malicious pranks, power to change shape, a dual nature (half animal/half divine), the urge for unremitting exposure to privation and torture as well as an approximation to the figure of a savior. An altogether negative hero, the Trickster yet manages to achieve through his stupidity what others fail to achieve by concentrated effort.
As Jung discovered, however, the Trickster is both a mythical figure and an inner psychic experience. Wherever and whenever he appears and in spite of his unimpressive exterior, he brings the possibility of transforming the meaningless into the meaningful. Hence, he symbolizes the propensity for enantiodromia; and, gauche, unconscious creature though he may be, his actions inevitably reflect a compensatory relationship to consciousness.
Psychologically, Jung saw the Trickster-figure as equivalent to the shadow.
For the Trickster image to be active means that a calamity has happened or a dangerous situation has been created. When the Trickster appears in dreams, in paintings, in synchronistic events, slips of the tongue, in fantasy projections and personal accidents of all kinds, a compensatory energy has been released. Recognition of the figure is only the first step in its integration, however. With the emergence of the symbol, attention is called to the original destructive unconscious state but it is not yet overcome. And, since the individual shadow is an enduring component of the personality, it can never be eliminated. The collective Trickster-figure reconstructs itself continually, manifesting the energizing power and numinosity of all would-be savior images
A. Samuels
Psychopomp
The ancient mystery cults are always connected with psychopompic deities. Some of these deities are equipped with the keys to the underworld, because as the guardians of the door they watch over the descent of the initiates into the darkness and are the leaders into the mysteries.
C.G. Jung
Psychopomp — the figure which guides the soul at times of initiation and transition; a function traditionally ascribed to Hermes in Greek myth for he accompanied the souls of the dead and was able to pass between polarities (not only death and life, but night and day, heaven and earth). In the human world the priest, shaman, medicine man and doctor are some who have been recognized as fulfilling the need for spiritual guidance and mediation between sacred and secular worlds. Jung did not alter the meaning of the word but he used it to describe the function of the anima and animus in connecting a person with a sense of his ultimate purpose, calling or destiny; in psychological terms, acting as a go-between connecting ego and unconscious.
A. Samuels
The shadow is the "guardian of the threshold", across which the path leads into the nether realm of transformation and renewal. And so what first appears to the ego as a devil becomes a psychopomp, a guide of the soul, who leads the way into the underworld of the unconscious - which however includes hell as well as the realm of the Mothers. Here too Faust's compact with Mephisto turns out to be the prototype.
E. Neumann
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Wounded Healer
The classical man saw sickness as the effect of a divine action, which could be cured only by a god or another divine action. Thus a clear form of homeopathy, the divine sickness being cast out by the divine remedy (similia similibus curantur), was practiced in the clinics of antiquity. When sickness is vested with such dignity, it has the inestimable advantage that it can be vested with a healing power. The divina afflictio then contains its own diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis, provided of course that the right attitude toward it is adopted. This right attitude was made possible by the cult, which simply consisted in leaving the entire art of healing to the divine physician. He was the sickness and the remedy. These two conceptions were identical. Because he was the sickness, he himself was afflicted (wounded or persecuted like Asclepius or Trophonius), and because he was the divine patient he also knew the way to healing. To such a god the oracle of Apollo applies: “He who wounds also heals,” ho trôsas iásetai.
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C.A. Meier