Graduate Research Library: A Library Guide to Jung's Collected Works: Archetypes

Reference publications on Archetypes

"Archetype" In International dictionary of psychoanalysis by Murray Stein
Call Number: Ladera: REF RC501.4.D4313
Publication Date: 2005
"Jung first used the term "archetype" in 1919. This was preceded by several years of speculation on primordial images and impersonal dominants. The implications of the archetypal hypothesis were developed by Jung himself and by his many students over subsequent decades in numerous case studies and investigations of myth, religion, and esoteric practices, especially alchemy. As the field of analytical psychology has grown and developed, the notion of the archetype and the role of archetypal images in psychological functioning and development have assumed a central role and have become the most distinctive feature of this school of psychoanalysis. Archetypal psychology, led by James Hillman, is a later offshoot of analytical psychology." (p. 115) [Read more]
"Archetype" In A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis by Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (Eds.)
Call Number: BF173.J85 S275 1986
Publication Date: 1986
"The inherited part of the Psyche; structuring patterns of psychological performance linked to instinct; a hypothetical entity irrepresentable in itself and evident only through its manifestations. Jung's theory of the archetypes developed in three stages. In 1912 he wrote of primordial images which he recognised in the unconscious life of his patients as well as by way of his own self-analysis. These images were similar to motifs repeated everywhere and throughout history but their main features were their numinosity, unconsciousness and autonomy." (p. 26) [Read more]
"Archetype" In Psychoanalytic terms and concepts by Moore, B. & Fine, B. (Eds.)
Call Number: REF RC501.4.P79 1990
Publication Date: 1994
"An innate, inherited pattern of psychological performance, linked to instinct and, when activated, manifested in behavior and emotion. Jung’s theory of  the archetypes developed in three stages. In 1912  he wrote of primordial images , similar to cultural  motifs represented everywhere throughout history;  their main features were their power, depth, and  autonomy. Primordial imagery provided for Jung  the empirical content for his theory of the collective unconscious. By 1917 he was writing of dominants ,  nodal points in the psyche that attract energy and  hence influence a person’s functioning. He first  made use of the term archetype in 1919 to avoid  any suggestion that it was the content and not the  irrepresentable, fundamental structure that was  inherited." (p. 18) [Read more]
"Archetype". In Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts by Sharp, D. (Ed.).
Call Number: BF109.J8S53 1991
Publication Date: 1991
Available as a free download from the publisher
Archetype. "Primordial, structural elements of the human psyche." (Sharp, 1991)
Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain structure-indeed they are its psychic aspect. They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation. They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche . . . that portion through which the psyche is attached to nature. ["Mind and Earth," CW 10, para. 53]
[Read more]

"Archetype" In Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (3rd ed.) by Ann Casement
Publication Date: 2020
"Archetype is one of Jung’s two “signature concepts” according to the Jung scholar, Sonu Shamdasani, the other being the collective unconscious with which it is closely linked. Jung states that the collective unconscious is the part of the psyche which can be negatively distinguished from a personal unconscious by the fact that unlike the latter it does not owe its existence to personal experience. Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content of the collective unconscious “is made up essentially of archetypes” (Jung,1959: 42).
Jung first used the term “archetype” in 1919 in his paper Instinct and the Unconscious. He states there is good reason for supposing that the archetypes are the unconscious images of the instincts themselves, in other words they are “patterns of instinctual behaviour’ (Jung, 1959: 44). He goes on to say: “There are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life (Jung, 1959: 48). In Jung’s model, the unconscious rests on a spectrum with the archetype at the ultraviolet end and the instinct at the infrared end. These struggle and intermingle with each other in the unconscious to form units of energy and motivation that manifest in ideas, images, urges and strivings. From this it may be deduced that the psyche is located in the space between instinct and archetype, matter and spirit, the body and the transcendent mind. “Psychologically, however, the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives (Jung, 1960: 212)." (pp. 67-70) [Read more]
"Archetypes" In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 1) by Beverly Moon
Publication Date: 2005
"ARCHETYPES: The English word archetype derives from a Greek word that is prominent in the writings of religious thinkers during the Hellenistic period. In modern times, the term has been used to refer to fundamental structures in the human psyche as well as in religious life. In either sense, an archetype is a pattern that determines human experience (whether on a conscious or an unconscious level) and makes itself felt as something both vital and holy." (pp. 457-460) [Read more]
"Archetype" In Encyclopedia of literary and cultural theory by Alexander Chirila
Publication Date: 2011
"Archetypes, understood as universal symbols of psychic reality, were first described systematically by the Swiss psychoanalyst, C. G. Jung. In their simplest and most familiar forms, archetypes are character images (e.g., the Hero or Father), but they can take a variety of more abstract forms (e.g., Anima and Animus). They are commonly found in myths, parables, fairytales, and a wide range of literary texts of primordial human experience. They are landmarks on the path of human evolution, and their interactions express the dynamics of a changing mind. According to Jung, archetypes can be found in the unconscious and conscious minds, where they take on stylized and ritualized forms, far removed from the realm of actual experience. In their primary form, they are signs composed of two distinct and intertwined elements. The first is a stable, universal and primordial core of meaning, and the second is a surrounding flux of signification and association that adapts to social, cultural, and ideological contexts. Although universally familiar, archetypes are promethean; although transcendent by definition, they are rarely seen out of context. Post-Jungian George H. Jensen has written that 'Archetypes, which Jung says evolve over time, are constantly being transformed and reinterpreted by the individual’s consciousness, and they are inseparable from language, history, and culture' (2009: 4)." (Vol. 1, pp. 48-51) [Read more]

"The archetypes" In The handbook of Jungian psychology by Anthony Stevens. R. Papadopoulos (Ed.)
Call Number: BF173 .H333 2006
Publication Date: 2012
"The place of archetypal theory in the Jungian opus, its importance and overall relevance": With his theory of archetypes operating as components of the collective unconscious, Jung sought to define the living bedrock of human psychology. Virtually alone among depth psychologists of the twentieth century, he rejected the tabula rasa theory of human psychological development, wholeheartedly embracing the notion that evolutionary pressures had determined the basic structures and functions of the human psyche. Jung wrote: '[It is] a mistake to suppose that the psyche of the newborn child is a tabula rasa in the sense that there is absolutely nothing in it. Insofar as the child is born with a differentiated brain that is predetermined by heredity and therefore individualized, it meets sensory stimuli coming from outside not with any aptitudes, but with specific ones.' (Jung 1936/1954: par. 136)" [Read more]
"Archetypes and the collective unconscious" in A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung by Robert H. Hopcke
Call Number: REF BF173 .J85 H66
ISBN: 9781570624056
Publication Date: 1999
"Jung himself called his psychological theory analytical psychology, both to express its direction and to distinguish his  approach from Freud’s psychoanalysis. However, many writers and psychologists have found that the term archetypal  psychology is almost a more apt description, and, indeed, this  term points to perhaps the most fundamental and distinctive  concept in analytical psychology: that of the archetypes of  the collective unconscious. To separate Jung’s conception of the archetype from his  theory of the collective unconscious is impossible. Each depends on the other for theoretical coherence. One could not  speak of archetypes, as Jung used the term, without the  theory of the collective unconscious, nor could the collective  unconscious truly be collective, as Jung used the term, without the archetypes. Therefore, the concepts are treated here  as two parts of a single theory." (p. 13) [Read more]

Jung on Archetypes

Jung's essays on Archetypes from the Collected Works:

The relations between the ego and the unconscious (pp. 121–241)
Jung, C. G. (1966). The relations between the ego and the unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 7. Two essays on analytical psychology (2nd ed., pp. 121–241). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850891.121
The concept of the collective unconscious (pp. 42-53)
Jung, C. G. (1968). The concept of the collective unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 9 pt. 1. Archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed., pp. 42-53). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1936/37) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850969.42
Conscious, unconscious, and individuation (pp. 275-289)
Jung, C. G. (1968). Conscious, unconscious, and individuation (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 9 pt. 1. Archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed., pp. 275-289). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1939) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850969.275
Archetypes of the collective unconscious (pp. 3-41)
Jung, C. G. (1968). Archetypes of the collective unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 9 pt. 1. Archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed., pp. 3-41). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1954) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850969.3
On the nature of the psyche (pp. 159-234)
Jung, C. G. (1969). On the nature of the psyche (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 8. Structure and dynamics of the psyche (2nd ed., pp. 159-234). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1954) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850952.159

Four Archetypes by C. G. Jung; Sonu Shamdasani (Forward)
Call Number: BF315 .J7713 1970
Publication Date: 2012
One of Jung's most influential ideas has been his view, presented here, that primordial images, or archetypes, dwell deep within the unconscious of every human being. The essays in this volume gather together Jung's most important statements on the archetypes, beginning with the introduction of the concept in "Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious." In separate essays, he elaborates and explores the archetypes of the Mother and the Trickster, considers the psychological meaning of the myths of Rebirth, and contrasts the idea of Spirits seen in dreams to those recounted in fairy tales. This paperback edition of Jung's classic work includes a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani, Philemon Professor of Jung History at University College London.

Deconstructing archetype theory by Christian Roesler
ISBN: 9781032390499
Publication Date: 2023
"This important book offers a critical and timely reassessment of one of the cornerstones of analytical psychology, Jung's concept of archetypes. Exploring not only Jung's original writings but also the range of interpretations used by Jungian scholars today, the book argues that Jung's conceptualization of archetype theory is not a single coherent theory; rather, it is four different theories which must be understood separately. Roesler goes onto deconstruct these four ideas: the biological, the anthropological, the transcendental and the psychological in context with contemporary insights from each of these disciplines. A thorough analysis of the state of knowledge in the respective disciplines (i.e. biology, anthropology, religious and mythological studies) makes clear that the claims archetype theory makes in these fields have no support and should be given up. Deconstructing Archetype Theory concludes by arguing that a universal process of psychological transformation is the only part of archetype theory which should be maintained, as it provides a map for psychotherapy."
C. G. Jung's archetype concept: Theory, research, and applications by Christian Roesler
ISBN: 9781003058458
Publication Date: 2021
"The concept of archetypes is at the core of C. G. Jung's analytical psychology. In this interesting and accessible volume, Roesler summarises the classical theory of archetypes and the archetypal stages of the individuation process as it was developed by Jung and his students. Various applications of archetypes, in cultural studies as well as in clinical practice, are demonstrated with detailed case studies, dream series, myths, fairy tales, and so on. The book also explores how the concept has further developed as a result of research and, for the first time, integrates findings from anthropology, human genetics, and the neurosciences. Based on these contemporary insights, Roesler also makes a compelling argument for why some of Jung's views on the concept should be comprehensively revised."
Archetypal Ontology: New directions in analytical psychology by Jon Mills; Erik Goodwyn
ISBN: 9781032394800
Publication Date: 2023
"In this novel re-examination of the archetype construct, philosopher Jon Mills and psychiatrist Erik Goodwyn engage in spirited dialogue on the origins, nature, and scope of what archetypes actually constitute, their relation to the greater questions of psyche and worldhood, and their relevance for Jungian studies and analytical psychology today. Arguably the most definitive feature of Jung's metapsychology is his theory of archetypes. It is the fulcrum on which his analytical depth psychology rests. With recent trends in post-Jungian and neo-Jungian perspectives that have embraced developmental, relational, social justice, and postmodern paradigms, classical archetype theory has largely become a drowning genre. Despite the archetypal school of James Hillman and his contemporaries, and the archetype debates that captured our attention over two decades ago, contemporary Jungians are preoccupied with the lived reality of the existential subject and the personal unconscious over the collective transpersonal forces derived from archaic ontology."
Archetype, attachment, analysis: Jungian psychology and the emergent mind by Jean Knox
Call Number: BF175.5.A72K68 2003
Publication Date: 2003
Archetype, Attachment, Analysis is a well-researched presentation of new material that offers a revision and reinterpretation of Jung's archetypal hypothesis. The author's ground breaking new exploration of expanding knowledge from other disciplines such as cognitive science and developmental psychology, and attachment theory and research evidence sheds important new light on Jungian theory and practice. Using information gathered through laboratory investigations and natural observational studies Jean Knox brings the notion of archetypes up to date and considers the implications of new paradigms for clinical work with patients. This book will become essential reading for all professionals and students of analytical psychology.
Archetype revisited: An updated natural history of the self by Anthony Stevens
Publication Date: 2002
Archetype: A Natural History of the Self, first published in 1982, was a ground-breaking book; the first to explore the connections between Jung's archetypes and evolutionary disciplines such as ethology and sociobiology, and an introduction to the archetypes in theory and practical application as well. In this revised, updated edition, Anthony Stevens considers the enormous cultural, social and intellectual changes that have taken place in the past 20 years.
Jungian archetypes: Jung, Gödel, and the history of archetypes by Robin Robertson
Publication Date: 2016
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Pythagoras taught that the simple counting numbers are the basic building blocks of reality. A century and a half later, Plato argued that the world we live in is but a poor copy of the world of ideas. Neither realized that their numbers and ideas might also be the most basic components of the human psych: archetypes. This book traces the modern evolution of this idea from the Renaissance to the 20th century, leading up to the archetypal hypothesis of psychologist C. G. Jung, and the mirroring of mathematical ideas of Kurt Gödel.

Book Chapters:

"Archetypes, object-relations and internal objects" In Analysis, repair and individuation by Kenneth Lambert
ISBN: 9781849401715
Publication Date: 1994
An exposition on individuation including 'Archetypes, Individuation and Internal Objects' and 'The Individuation Process'
"Archetypes" In C. G. Jung: The fundamentals of theory and practice (pp. 307-317) by Elie Humbert
Call Number: BF173.J85H8313 1988
Publication Date: 1988
Print copy available from the library
"The idea of the “archetype” has been the source of much misunderstanding among Jung’s followers as well as among his critics. The danger  lies in not going beyond a single formulation of the archetype and in not  following through a gradual and difficult theoretical elaboration to its  logical end." [Read more]
"Jung on the archetypes" In Jung in the 21st century (Vol. 1) by John Ryan Haule
Call Number: BF173.J85 H38 2011
Publication Date: 2010
Although one reviewer found more than thirty different definitions of archetype in a single volume (CW9i) of Jung’s Collected Works (R. F. Hobson 1980), there is at least one stable fact. The archetype is always some sort of structuring principle that lies outside of everyday consciousness and, when it emerges suddenly, exceeds all subjective expectations. Running into such an archaic reality, Jung said in 1911, is like encountering a 2000-year-old Corinthian column on a modern street corner—the last thing we expect, yet disturbingly familiar. "Just a moment ago we were given over to the noisy ephemeral life of the present, when something very far away and strange appears to us . . . on this very spot . . . two thousand years ago . . . similar passions moved mankind, and a man was likewise convinced of the uniqueness of his experience" (CWB: 1) [Read more]

Colman, W. (2018). Are archetypes essential?. The Journal of Analytical Psychology, 63(3), 336–346
Abstract: "This paper distinguishes between Jung’s theoretical discourse regarding the archetypes and his phenomenological account of numinous experience. For this author, the initial attraction of ‘my Jung’ came from both the vivid Romanticism of his descriptions of the anima and the apparent ‘ground of being’ offered by his theory of archetypes. However, the essentialism inherent to archetypal theory in general and the anima in particular has necessitated a re‐evaluation of Jung’s theory in terms of emergence theory. My own version of this emphasises the role of symbols in the constitution of affect through collective human action in the world. In this reconfiguration, the visceral energy of numinous experience is retained while the problematic theory of archetypes is no longer needed."

Goodwyn, E. (2019). Comments on the 2018 IAAP Conference on Archetype Theory: Defending a non‐reductive biological approach. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 64(5), 720-737.
Abstract: Comments on the 2018 IAAP Conference on Archetype Theory. During the course of the 2018 IAAP conference, a criticism of Jung’s idea of the archetype as inherited predisposition was raised that involved examining a number of dreams and visions and assessing them through developments in genetics and neuroscience. From this comparison it was argued that archetypes cannot be inherited and could more reasonably be argued to derive from early experiences. In this essay, the author responds by showing how this conclusion is flawed due to being based on reductive errors. An alternative, non‐reductive but inherited and biological position on the archetype is defended.

Hogenson, G. B. (2019). The controversy around the concept of archetypes. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 64(5), 682–700.
Related video: George Hogenson on archetypes
Abstract: The paper reviews the course of the controversy surrounding Jung's theory of archetypes beginning in the mid 1990s and continuing to the present. Much of this controversy was concerned with the debate between the essentialism of the evolutionary position of Anthony Stevens as found in his 1983 book Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self, and the emergence model of the archetypes proposed in various publications by Hogenson, Knox and Merchant, among others. The paper then moves on to a consideration of more recent developments in theory, particularly as derived from an examination of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who introduces Bergson's somnambulistic unconscious into the discussion of Jung's theories. It is suggested that this largely unexamined influence on Jung may provide answers to some of the unanswered questions surrounding his theorizing. The paper concludes by suggesting that the notion of the somnambulistic unconscious may resemble Atmanspacher's argument for a dual‐aspect monism interpretation of Jung.

Lewis, R. C. (1989). The historical development of the concept of the archetype. Quadrant, 22(1), 41–53.
Abstract: Traces the development of Jung's concept of the archetype from its earliest antecedents in his early writings to its final form. A discussion of Jung's early notions of complexes and the intellectual influences on these notions is followed by a description of Freud's major influences on Jung, along with the development of the concept of the imago. The most mature view of the archetype expressed was that of a durable pattern that manifests itself through the image, idea, or physical event; a dynamic organizer of psyche and matter; a structure associated with strong affects; and an entity associated with synchronistic occurrences that meaningfully connect particular psychic and physical events.

Merchant, J. (2019). The controversy around the concept of archetypes and the place for an emergent/developmental model. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 64(5), 701-719.
Abstract: This paper addresses two key controversial questions to do with the concept of archetypes—do they operate autonomously without connection to an individual's personal life experience? Does their biological base mean they are genetically determined, innate and thus a priori inherited psychic structures? These questions are addressed through the case of a person who began life as an unwanted pregnancy, was adopted at birth and as an adult, experienced profound waking visions. An emergent/developmental model of archetype is outlined which stresses developmental start‐points through this infant's engagement via response and reaction to the affective and material world of the infant/birth mother matrix and from which emergence later occurs by way of participation in a socio‐cultural and material context. The emergentism aspect of this model rescues it from being reductionist since it allows for cultural and socialisation inputs. The model's explanatory power is vastly enlarged by combining this with the developmental component. Critically, once developmentally produced mind/brain (image schema) structures are in place, they have the capacity to generate psychological life. Imagery can then appear as if it is innately derived when that is not the case. The contemporary neuroscience which supports this model is both outlined and related back to the case example.

Mills, J. (2020). On the origins of archetypes. International Journal of Jungian Studies, 12(2), 201–206. https://doi-org.pgi.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/19409060-01201008
Abstract: The question of archetypes and their origins remains an ongoing debate in analytical psychology and post-Jungian studies. The contemporary discussion has historically focused on privileging one causal factor over another, namely, whether archetypes are attributed more to biology than culture and vice versa. Erik Goodwyn offers a mesotheory of archetypal origins that displaces the radical bifurcation as a false dichotomy. I offer my own reflections on the origins of archetypes and argue that this discussion can be further advanced by addressing the question of unconscious agency.

Pietikainen, P. (1998). Archetypes as symbolic forms. The Journal of Analytical Psychology, 43(3), 325–343.
In Jung's psychology, archetypes are biologically inherited supraindividual predispositions of the collective unconscious; this theory of archetypes is evaluated in the context of E. Cassirer's (published 1955–1972) philosophy of symbolic forms. It is contended that with the help of the Cassirerian approach, archetypes can be understood as culturally determined functionary forms organizing and structuring aspects of man's culturally activity (e.g., emotional, numinous, pathological aspects of human life) that remain more or less unarticulated due to their nondiscursive nature. The proposed revision revolves around the notion that the archetypal theory can be removed from the unfruitful discourse on the genetic inheritance of archetypes. When archetypes are seen as symbolic forms, Jung's theory is in a position to make a potentially valuable contribution to hermeneutical and cultural studies, as archetypes function in this new context as active constituents of human experiences, giving these experiences a nondiscursive, symbolic form. Archetypes can become accessible to historical and cultural analyses, and hermeneutical inquiry into the manifold symbolism of mental (including unconscious) phenomena can be enriched.

Rossi, E. L. (1989). Archetypes as strange attractors. Psychological Perspectives: A Semiannual Journal of Jungian Thought, 20(1), 4–15.