The Collective Unconscious - Chapter 5

The collective unconscious

• A reservoir of WHAT resources common to all humans, something like psychological WHAT

The collective unconscious

• A reservoir of PSYCHIC resources common to all humans, something like psychological INSTINCT

The collective unconscious

• WHAT, not learned: as generation after generation met similar WHAT (mothers, heroes, death, the sun), WHAT patterns formed

The collective unconscious

• INHERITED, not learned: as generation after generation met similar SITUATIONS (mothers, heroes, death, the sun), ARCHETYPAL patterns formed

The collective unconscious

• Jung's evidence: recurring WHAT in myths and fairy tales across cultures with no WHAT — he travelled to North Africa, Pueblo New Mexico, East Africa, and India to check

The collective unconscious

• Jung's evidence: recurring SYMBOLS in myths and fairy tales across cultures with no CONTACT — he travelled to North Africa, Pueblo New Mexico, East Africa, and India to check

The collective unconscious

• He also came to this realization through two scientific practices of his:

1. WHAT

2. WHAT

The collective unconscious

• He also came to this realization through two scientific practices of his:

1. Word association

2. Psychics

The word association experiments and the complex

• At the Burghölzli (early 1900s), Jung ran word-association studies: read a stimulus word, record the WHAT and the WHAT time

• Delays, blanks, odd repetitions, and physiological arousal clustered around WHAT charged themes — even when patients were WHAT

The word association experiments and the complex

• At the Burghölzli (early 1900s), Jung ran word-association studies: read a stimulus word, record the RESPONSE and the REACTION time

• Delays, blanks, odd repetitions, and physiological arousal clustered around EMOTIONALLY charged themes — even when patients were UNAWARE

The word association experiments and the complex

• Jung's inference: emotionally toned clusters of ideas and images — WHAT — operate WHAT conscious control

The word association experiments and the complex

• Jung's inference: emotionally toned clusters of ideas and images — COMPLEXES — operate OUTSIDE conscious control

The word association experiments and the complex

• A complex is close to the modern idea of a WHAT. When activated, it can feel like being 'WHAT' by an emotion with a theme

The word association experiments and the complex

• A complex is close to the modern idea of a SCHEMA. When activated, it can feel like being 'POSSESSED' by an emotion with a theme

The word association experiments and the complex

• Jung's advice: get to know your WHAT and their WHAT, so under pressure they don't run you

• This was WHAT, WHAT laboratory work

The word association experiments and the complex

• Jung's advice: get to know your COMPLEXES and their TRIGGERS, so under pressure they don't run you

• This was MEASURABLE, REPLICABLE laboratory work

The rule to the word association lab: reaction time tells you WHAT something was struck, never WHAT

The rule to the word association lab: reaction time tells you THAT something was struck never WHAT

In the word association lab the kind of complex is read from the WHAT of words that WHAT together

In the word association lab the kind of complex is read from the THEME of words that MISBEHAVED together

money · exam · failure · future → Achievement / inferiority complex

Worth measured by performance; fear of not measuring up. The most common cluster in a university room.

mother · home → Mother / family complex

The one Jung wrote about most — origin, attachment, and everything still unresolved there

love → Erotic / relational complex

Intimacy, longing, the relationship that ended badly — or the one that hasn't started

a 'neutral' word fires → The wildcard

'Water' after a near-drowning; 'ship' if that's how your father left. No
word is neutral in itself — the complex is in the person, not the list.

Synchronicity: WHAT

Synchronicity: Meaningful coincidence

The coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the WHAT or a WHAT meaning'

The coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the SAME or a SIMILAR meaning'

A psychic state and an external event occur together with a WHAT parallel

A psychic state and an external event occur together with a MEANINGFUL parallel

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross reported synchronicity and thousands of patient accounts of WHAT— and was vilified for discussing them

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross reported synchronicity and thousands of patient accounts of NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES — and was vilified for discussing them