The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious was published in 1959 as Volume 9, Part I of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung (Bollingen Series XX). The volume collects essays written between 1934 and 1954 that together constitute Jung’s most sustained exposition of his most original and controversial concept: the collective unconscious.
Jung’s argument, stated simply, is that the human psyche contains more than personal experience. Beneath the personal unconscious (Freud’s domain — repressed memories, forgotten experiences, suppressed desires) lies a deeper layer that is not personal but universal. This collective unconscious contains archetypes — inherited patterns of psychic functioning that express themselves in the myths, fairy tales, religious symbols, and dream imagery of every culture. The archetypes are not inherited ideas or images but inherited tendencies to form images — predispositions, as it were, that shape experience before experience occurs.
The major archetypes discussed in this volume include the Shadow (the dark, rejected aspects of the personality), the Anima and Animus (the contrasexual elements in men and women respectively), the Self (the archetype of wholeness and the goal of individuation), and the Great Mother. Jung illustrates each archetype with examples drawn from mythology, religion, alchemy, and clinical practice, moving between ancient texts and modern case studies with a fluency that can be exhilarating or maddening depending on the reader’s tolerance for analogical reasoning.
The concept of the collective unconscious remains controversial. Critics argue that Jung’s evidence is circular — he identifies archetypes in myths and then uses the myths as evidence for archetypes — and that the theory is unfalsifiable. Defenders argue that the cross-cultural recurrence of certain symbolic patterns requires explanation, and that Jung’s theory, whatever its empirical limitations, provides a rich framework for understanding the relationship between individual psychology and cultural symbolism.
Collecting The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
First edition (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1959): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $200–$500
- Very good/very good: $80–$200