Archetypes

Innate tendencies have been described in variety of ways. The term archetype refers to recurrent patterns of design, story  telling, symbol  making and ritual expressions found all over the planet at different historical times. Knowing that each human is the reincarnation of a long  lineage of ancestors, you would expect to find common themes of pattern recognition, group behavior, storytelling and symbol making wherever you found humans. Species memory, perceptual skills, needs, drives, feelings, desires and behaviors are built in and find common expressions world  wide. Urges, desires, designs, feelings cry out from within. 

Carl Jung interpreted archetypes as an expression of a collective unconscious,  his term for the repository of innate tendencies built into the human brain.  You could argue that the term, archetypes, should point to innate configurations that need not be learned. The distinction between form and content is useful. The form is the innate configuration that receives content via feature detectors that recognize patterns in nature. Form is ancient and universal. Content is local and specific.

The natural world is an immense repository of repeating events, designs and sequences. The original archetypes are manifestations of our native receptivity to the patterns of nature.

The term ”archetype” can also describe human expressions, manifest as common behaviors such as  drumming, dancing, singing, painting and tool  making. Archetype sometimes points to expressions that recur as common elements in religion, art and other storytelling, including literature and movies. Often common characters, themes and metaphors are described inappropriately as archetypes, but are often  copied, conventional characters and plots. There are themes that recur in myths and other stories worldwide.

Campbell identified five universal themes in myths: fire, theft, deluge, land of the dead, virgin birth, and resurrected hero.   These themes have been repeated with local inflections for thousands of years.

 Hero’s Journey

Campbell identified the hero’s journey as a basic plot found in myths that involves standard characters and a sequence of episodes. For example, a hero is born into an ordinary world, where he receives an invitation to adventure; he first refuses the call, but is encouraged by a mentor to go forth and explore the unknown where he encounters tests, allies and enemies. If he survives the initial challenges, the hero crosses a second threshold and enters an inner sanctum or cave where he must survive another ordeal to take possession of his reward.

The hero’s journey requires a final effort to return to the ordinary world with a treasure that benefits all humans. The return is a resurrection that qualifies the hero as a transcendent being. The hero in other words, is not a winner who indulges himself with his prize money, but a superior man who transcends his own nature to become an unselfish benefactor.

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Language and Thinking

Intelligence  Learning

The  Psychology & Philosophy series was developed by Persona Digital. The books are copyright; all rights to reproduction by any means are reserved. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Language and Thinking  published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books.