Critical Evaluation of The Personal & Collective Unconscious - Essay Example

Critical Evaluation of “The Personal & Collective Unconscious” Introduction The spectrum of psychology has been spread out on a wider canvas which discusses individual and collective conscious and unconscious issues. Psychoanalytic think tanks have focused on the subject of individual or personal unconsciousness the most, but Carl Jung distinguished between collective and personal conscious and unconscious behaviour. His paradoxical thinking is highly reputed among the respective field. The literary services provided by Carl Jung have explored new doors of knowledge. Moreover considerable amount of psychologists and psychoanalysts agree with the illustrations given by Jung (Healy, 2004, p.52). The issue of collective and personal unconscious has been under discussion since the inception of this idea. There are many philosophers who have condemned this theory and claim that collective unconscious comes under the same sunshade of personal unconscious. Additionally personal unconscious fulfils all the dimensions of unconscious mind of human being as retrieval of old memories is the main objective and initiative. This paper examines Carl Jung’s theory about personal and collective unconscious. It unfolds the central theme and idea presented by the paradoxical thinker along with the critique of psychoanalysts. The purpose of this study is to exemplify the collective and personal unconscious of human beings, and make concise that whether collective unconscious prevails around the human race or not. Critical evaluation and conclusion is also added to elucidate the perception of this theory evidently. The Personal Unconscious According to Jung (1966, p.12), personal unconscious are those forgotten memories which deal exclusively with the life of a human beings. All the previous reminiscences occurred during an individual’s life comes under the category of personal unconscious. This develops the idea that all those incidents which happened during one’s personal life and whom which a person has almost forgotten are his personal unconscious. A glimpse of those memories may remind the individual about past experiences. These memories lies within the human brain but can only surface if something from that memory is revealed to the individual. These memoirs only deal with the single individual and do not have anything to do with the masses. The memories which lie within an individual but are repressed or forgotten by him are his personal unconscious. Vast majority of audience and individuals are not involved in sharing those memories. According to Jung "most of earlier impressions in life are soon forgotten and go to form the infantile layer of what I have called the personal uncon­scious" (Jung, 1966, p.29). This quote manifestly portrays thoughts about Jung regarding personal unconscious. Most of the psychoanalysts have developed their theories and research work on this framework. Collective and personal unconscious are kept in the same bracket by certain psychologists, however both these are exclusive fields of studies. Personal unconscious only deals with an individually personally. The past experiences and events occurred in one’s life are a part of his personal unconscious (Shelburne, 1988, p.34). Collective Unconscious Human memories are in the collective form too. The forgotten and repressed memories which are shared by numerous individuals come under the category of collective unconscious. The occurrence of those memories can have different effect on an individual but the theme remains that those memories are shared by the majority. According to Jung (1966, p.39), collective unconscious are those memories which we have inherited. Generically Jung has distinguished psych into three categories, collective unconscious, personal unconscious and the “I” (ego). The element which distinguishes Jung from other psychoanalytical thinkers is the collective unconscious. Furthermore collective unconsciouses are inherited from culture and mental content. These ideas remain in the human mind unconsciously (Rogers, 2004, p.166). The occurrences of some national, cultural and traditional events which remain in minds of different individuals are the part of collective unconscious. For instance the memories of world war remain in individual’s mind which were present in that regime. Experiences of individuals may differ however the aspect of occurrence of event along with shared memories remain intact. Archetypes are the main body behind collective unconscious. To further elaborate the understanding of collective unconscious archetypes consider the classical example of mother. Every human being comes in the universe with a mother and certain set of ideas, beliefs, values and norms prevail among the cultures. Later on the native society portrays mother archetypes and a clear design is invaded in child’s mind. The archetypes of mother, brother, hero, father prevail among the human race (Hobson, 1973, p.70). Maximal and Minimal Interpretations The theory was debated among various scholar, philosophers and researchers. The ambiguity among the minimal interpretation of this concept still prevails which has totally reshaped the theory in the eye of some researchers. They have shifted their scope from the central idea of the theory and have started focusing on those aspects which were not even portrayed by Carl Jung. There are certain structures of unconsciousness which are familiar to the masses. The critique portrayed this thing as bones, muscles and body structures of human beings are also the same in this regard. Total diversion of intellectual concept was shifted to the physical aspect which is repulsive by the critics (Shelburne, 1988, p.95). The descriptions of Collective unconscious also had uncertainty among psychologists. Most of them remained intact to the descriptions elucidated by Carl Jung. Other focused on discovering new descriptions which again created literary conflict. Every researcher explained the concept according to his ideas and understanding. Eventually shift from the basic message and theme of collective unconscious theory was seen. The understanding of archetypes proposed by Jung created literary issues among the philosophers which led to the maximal interpretation debate. Most of the researchers still focused to the hypothesis of the concept and expanded their study on the concept of collective unconscious. The results obtained after instating archetypes of collective unconscious theory were constructive and affirmative (Healy, 2005, p.63). Central Theme The literary works of Carl Jung expands human thinking methodology and presents the picture that thinking outside the box is necessary. The inspiration of Carl’s concepts comes from Freud psychoanalytic thinking. Jung tried to get human out of the mystical concepts of “I” and personal conscious and unconscious and explored the new field of collectivism. The intention of the paradoxical thinker was to elucidate the concept of this vital dimension as human’s shares various memories on a bigger canvas too. Collective unconscious is totally different from the personal unconscious and has tremendous impact on human lives (Hobson, 1973, p.72). The realization of this concept can be palpably understood by the examples provided by Carl Jung. Some psychoanalysts reframe it by portraying it as the concept of monopsychism. It is obvious in the collective unconscious theory as it elucidates that human beings share same value, believes and cultural ideas which is also found in the doctrine of monopsychism (Healy, 2005, p.89). A group of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytical think tank believes that there is no need of the third dimension, collective unconscious as the concept of this dimension falls under the category of personal unconscious. They strengthen their proposed idea by giving relevant examples applied to this concept. Categorizing personal unconscious and forming a new dimension with weak bases is not acceptable by the researchers. Collective unconscious has more or less same properties which can fall under the umbrella of personal unconscious. There is no virtue of expanding psych parts as this would create complexity and ambiguity among future researchers and philosophers. Moreover they believe that Jung has proposed this dimension to differentiate himself from the traditional psychologists and has tried to be a paradoxical thinker. The theory proposed by Jung has minimal virtue as it can easily fall under the personal unconscious category (Shelburne, 1988, p.114). Critical Evaluation The literary services of Carl Jung have immense magnitude and enormity as they have elucidated several important concepts of psychology. The discussion of collective unconscious has been under the group of psychologists and think tanks since the emergence of this concept. The concept propagates the consequence of psych third part, collective unconscious. It is apparent that human beings share repressed and forgotten memories personally and on collective basis too (Rogers, 2004, p.175). The objective is to understand the prestige of collective unconscious. The idea of collective unconscious cannot fall under the category of personal unconscious as both of them are separate entities. There relevance is not that much to formulate and merge them under one single bracket. Collective memories of human beings recline in different ways. The examples provided by Jung while exemplifying his theory clearly indicate those aspects which are not found in the personal part. These ideas remain among human souls due to inheritance and same cultural values. The sharing of mother memories varies from societies to societies. In the western society, the characteristics found of mother are quite different as from the Asian society. Therefore collective unconscious also has the limitation that it differs from locality to locality. The main theme of Jung’s concept is the establishment and propagation of the third essential part of human psyche, which is the collectivism part. Human beings are unconsciously unaware that they share same repressed and forgotten memories among the other fellow human beings. Conclusion The research work of Carl Jung on personal and collective unconscious created two separate wings among the psychoanalytical thinker. There are many critics of Jung’s concept and emphasize that there is no relevance of the third dimension. The basic two parts of human psych are of immense meaning and connotation. The above illustrated discussions present balance reviews about the followers and opposition of Jung’s theory. The presentation of ideas and thoughts from both ends is very strong and for upcoming researchers, it is difficult to follow the respective concept. The collective unconscious of human beings although exists and neglecting this part is not justifiable. There are many occasions and incidents in an individual’s life where shared memories are present. Sabotaging this concept will only create further problems for the research work as follower of this concept have explored new elements in the field. The meadow of collective unconscious has been spread among all inter related fields of study. The concepts presented by Carl are appropriate and need of the time. The minimalist interpretation of Jung was not understood by most of the psychoanalytical thinkers which created literary conflict among think tanks. The understanding of minimalist and maximal interpretation of Jung is essential to make precise thought about collective unconscious concept. Work Cited Healy, Sherry. Dare To Be Intuitive. We Publish Books, 2005. Print. Hobson, R. "The archetypes of the collective unconscious," Analytical Psychology: A Modern Science, p66-75, Heineman, London (1973). Print. ‎ Jung, C. G. "The personal and the collective unconscious." Two Essays in Analytical Psychology, Collected Works (1966). Print. ‎ Rogers, Carl Ransom, Client-centred therapy. American Psychological Association, 2004 Shelburne, Walter A. Mythos and logos in the thought of Carl Jung: The theory of the collective unconscious in scientific perspective. Suny Press, 1988. Print. ‎ Read More