Carl Jung: Structure of the Psyche, Collective Unconscious, Archetypes, Anima, and Animus.

Carl Jung: Structure of the Psyche, Collective Unconscious, Archetypes, Anima, and Animus.

1. Carl Gustav Jung
Dr. Ilyas Babar Awan
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These slides have been prepared in accordance with NUML’s MPhil English course
outline

2. Carl Gustav Jung and His Terminologies
(personal conscious, personal unconscious, collective
unconscious, archetypes, anima, animus)
1875-1961

3. Introduction: Jung’s Position in Psychoanalytic Criticism
Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), originally a follower of Freud, later developed his
own system of analytical psychology. While Freud emphasized the personal
unconscious(individual desires and repressed experiences), Jung expanded the
idea to include the collective unconscious, a shared psychic layer common to all
humanity.
Jung’s ideas shifted psychoanalytic criticismfrom focusing on the author’s
personal neuroses to exploring universal myths, symbols, and archetypes found
in all literatures and cultures.
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4. The Structure of the Psyche (According to Jung)
Level Description
The Personal Conscious
The part of the mind that contains thoughts, memories, and
experiences of which we are aware our everyday awareness or
ego-consciousness.
The Personal Unconscious
Contains forgotten or repressed experiences unique to each
individual similar to Freud’s unconscious but limited to
personal life.
The Collective Unconscious
The deepest layer of the psyche; it is universal and inherited,
not personal. It holds the archetypes primal images and
patterns shared by all humans, such as the hero, mother,
shadow, and wise old man.
Jung divides the human mind into three levels:

5. Collective Unconscious
The collective unconsciousis the central concept in Jung’s theory. It consists of
instinctive, mythic imagesthat reappear in dreams, myths, and art across all
cultures and times. Jung calls these archetypes, the recurring symbols and
situations that express deep psychological truths.
Examples:
•The flood mythappears in the Bible, in Gilgamesh, and in other ancient texts
— an archetype of purification and renewal.
•The hero’s journey(Odysseus, Beowulf, Frodo) symbolizes the individual’s
search for selfhood.
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6. Archetypes
Archetype Symbolic Meaning
The Hero
Courage, struggle, triumph over darkness (Oedipus,
Hamlet, Harry Potter)
The Mother
Nurture, protection, fertility (Mother Earth,
Madonna)
The Shadow
The darker, repressed side of personality (Mr. Hyde,
Macbeth’s ambition)
The Wise Old Man Wisdom, moral guidance (Merlin, Gandalf)
The Child
Innocence, potential, rebirth (Christ Child, Little
Prince)
According to Peter Barry, archetypes are “primordial images”timeless symbols or
patterns embedded in the collective unconscious that shape how we perceive the
world and create art. Common archetypes include:

7. Anima and Animus
Jung proposed that every individual contains both masculine and feminine elements within the
psyche:
•Anima:The feminine aspect within a man’s unconscious, representing emotion, intuition, and
receptivity.
•Animus:The masculine aspect within a woman’s unconscious representing reason, logic, and
assertiveness. Integration of anima and animus leads to psychic wholeness.
In literature, these appear as symbolic figures:
1.A man’s anima might appear as a mysterious woman guiding or disturbing him (Dante’s Beatrice,
Shakespeare’s Ophelia).
2.A woman’s animus might appear as an authoritative or spiritual male figure (Jane Eyre’s Mr.
Rochester).

8. Jungian Literary Criticism
Jung’s theories influenced archetypal literary criticism, which looks for
recurring myths, patterns, and symbols across texts and cultures.
Main goals of Jungian criticism:
•To trace universal myths and symbolsin literature.
•To show how texts express shared human fears and desiresrather
than purely personal ones.
•To interpret a literary work as a manifestation of the collective
unconscious, not merely the author’s individual [email protected]

9. Comparison with Freud
Aspect Freud Jung
Focus
Individual psyche and
repressed desires
Universal human psyche and
shared symbols
Unconscious
Personal, formed by
individual experience
Collective, inherited and
universal
Method
Dream analysis, sexuality,
neurosis
Mythic and symbolic analysis
Main Contribution
Oedipus complex,
repression
Archetypes, collective
unconscious
while Freud sees literature as disguised wish-fulfillment, Jung views it as a symbolic
revelation of universal psychic truths.