Jung’s collective unconscious and

mythology.

Do myths reflect the collective unconscious?

Archetypes

To make the point clearer...

...let’s take a closer look at the hero archetype!

What is

the hero archetype

?

Good Question.

“The [hero is] the mana

personality. He represents the ego, and is often engaged in

fighting the shadow,

in the form of dragons and other monsters.”

-Dr. C. George Boeree,Shippensburg University

Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

Let’s take the examples of

Spiderman and Hercules.

Spiderman

• Protects

• Saves

• Fights evil, both in the form of physical

monsters...

• ...and evils in his own personality.

First appeared as a comic character in 1962.First cartoon in 1967.

Blockbuster film released in 2002.

Hercules

• Saves

• Protects

• Fights evil, mostly dangerous, malevolent monsters

Hero from ancient Greek mythology

Well hey!

They both match Jung’s Hero archetype

characteristics pretty well, don’t they?

This suggests that...

The archetypes expressed in

ancient mythology and

modern popular storytelling are very similar.

If archetypes are part of

mythology, which is in turn a

reflection of the collective unconscious...

Does this mean that the collective unconscious

is present in all storytelling, from

ancient mythology to the modern myths?

Seems so.

If you still have trouble understanding...

Then make sure you aren’t here:

And try again. :)