The controversy around the concept of archetypes and the place for an emergent/developmental model
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8983552 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Merchant (0000-0001-6723-4272, Sydney Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 701-719 |
| Publication date | 2019-10-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Analytical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8774 • E-ISSN: 1465-5922 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-5922.12542 |
| PMID | 31659767 |
| OpenAlex | W2982363660 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 25 |
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
Archetype · Cognitive science · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Psychic · Reductionism · Schema (genetic algorithms · Sociology · Vision · Child and Animal Learning Development · Computer Science · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · History · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Psychology
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Archetypes and the ‘impoverished environment’ argument
Dialectics of Sign and Symbol and the Utterance of Archetype Theory
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Archetype and epigenetics – approximations
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Things fall apart. The cultural complex in contemporary times 1
Archetype, Attachment, Analysis
Probabilistic epigenesis
Socioeconomic Status Modifies Heritability of IQ in Young Children
Cortisol levels and very early pregnancy loss in humans
The Body in the Mind
Responses to Erik Goodwyn's ‘Approaching archetypes
Recurrent motifs as resonant attractor states in the narrative field
Archetypes, complexes and self‐organization
The image schema and innate archetypes
Towards the feeling of emergence
Are archetypes transmitted more by culture than biology? Questions arising from conceptualizations of the archetype
The Self, the symbolic and synchronicity
The Baldwin effect
Foetal trauma, body memory and early infant communication
The developmental/emergent model of archetype, its implications and its application to shamanism
A reappraisal of classical archetype theory and its implications for theory and practice
Response to Pietikainen and Stevens
From archetypes to reflective function
The Revised Standard Version
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |