The myth of the collective unconscious
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4822935 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon Mills (0000-0003-3673-0884, Psychology Program Adler Graduate Professional School Toronto Ontario Canada, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 40-53 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/jhbs.21945 |
| PMID | 30561827 |
| OpenAlex | W2905145199 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 2 |
This essay challenges the most basic tenet of Jung's analytical psychology, namely, the existence of the collective unconscious. Despite the fact that there are purported to be universal processes and ontological features of mind throughout all psychoanalytical schools of thought, Jung's is unique in the history of psychoanalytic ideas for positing a supraordinate, autonomous transpersonal psyche that remains the source, ground, and wellspring from which all unconscious and conscious manifestations derive. This bold claim is analyzed through a close inspection of Jung's texts that questions the philosophical justification for postulating a supernatural macroanthropos or reified collective mind. Pointing out the problems of agency and fallacies of hypostatization, it is not necessary to evoke a transpersonal cosmogony to explain how universality suffuses individual subjectivity within social collectives. Here we may conclude that the collective unconscious construct is a signifier for the common psychological dynamics and characteristics of shared humanity. In this sense, the myth of the collective unconscious is better understood as a metaphor for a higher abstraction or ideal principle ordained with numinous value
Agency (philosophy) · Collective unconscious · Consciousness · Cosmogony · Epistemology · Humanity · Literature · Metaphor · Mythology · Personal unconscious · Psyche · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Subjectivity · Unconscious mind · Jungian Analytical Psychology · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Culture, Psychiatry and Epigenetics
Art Notions in the Age of (Mis)anthropic AI
Family Constellation Therapy in the Context of Esotericism
Empowering Collective Intentionality
Jung on Transcendence
Hermeneutic dialogue with the unconscious
Response to Erik Goodwyn's paper ‘Phenotypic plasticity and archetype
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |