TOPIC: “The three major Jungian archetypes”

Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, the creator of the Jungian archetypes, once
said: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will
call it fate.” He was more than right when you think about how you can discover
your true self by joining your unconscious and your consciousness. The human
being has always tried to understand, deepen and give explanations to the
questions about the human personality. In the past, it was defined as “soul”,
“psyche” or “behavior patterns”. Those patterns, that make us unique and different
from each other, have caught the attention of philosophers, thinkers, and scientists
during the history of humanity and, especially, of the psychologists. One of them
was Carl Jung, who proposed his own way of understanding the motivations of the
human personality through archetypes. Jung believed that archetypes were models
of people, behaviors, or personalities. In Jungian psychology, the archetypes
represent universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious.
The way we behave and the way we think are representing by the three major
Jungian archetypes which are the Persona, the Shadow, and the Anima and
Animus archetype.

The Persona archetype is one of the most frequently seen in people. Basically,
it is how we represent ourselves to the world and we believe that our real
personality is that one, but in fact, it is not. The word “persona” is a Latin word that
means “mask”, so it represents the different social masks that we wear among
various groups and situations. This archetype is most commonly seen in social
networks; for example, there are a lot of people who post pictures smiling and
pretending that they have a happy life but not all of that is true. These kinds of
people wear a happy mask in order to not show who they really are and what their
real life is. Over the course of development, children learn certain values and
behavior patterns that they must need to follow in order to fit in with society’s
expectations and norms. The unconscious develops that social mask called
“persona” to contain all of the impulses, behavior, and emotions that are not
considered socially acceptable. A lot of people wear it because they adapt to the
world around them and make them feel like part of society. However, if your
Persona is excessive, your real personality will disappear until you do not
recognize who you really are.

The Shadow is another important archetype as well as the Persona. The

Shadow is composed of repressed thoughts, ideas, desires, weaknesses, and
instincts. It contains the values, behavior patterns and emotions that are not
accepted by the society and our moral values. The Shadow is the part of our self
that is not acceptable and it is only discovered through the negative characteristics
we project to others. There is a quote that Carl Jung used to say: “if you really want
to know someone, you must know their Shadow.” Sometimes, we used to say: “I
have false friends” or, “I thought he was my friend” because we never knew how
they really were. The shadow is often described as the darker side of the psyche,
representing chaos, sex instincts and the unknown. According to Jung, the
shadow is represented in dreams as a snake, dragon or a demon. Besides, it is
totally important that once you know which your Shadow is, you must accept it
because it is part of the process of self-knowledge.

The Anima and Animus represent the feminine and masculine archetype. One
part of the person is the masculine or feminine role that we have to interpret. Most
of the theorists thought that this role is determined by the physical genre. However,
Jung believed that all of us are bisexual by nature referring to our psychic identity.
Certainly, the Anima is the feminine aspect in the collective unconscious of men
and the animus is the masculine aspect in the collective unconscious of woman. It
is believed that the Anima and Animus are projected in a girlfriend or boyfriend that
you can have. In other words, if you are a boy who has a girlfriend, probably you
fell in love with that girl because you saw your Anima in her. The most
representative figures in the Anima archetype are goddesses, famous women,
mothers, witches, and feminine creatures; on the other hand, the most
representative figures in the Animus archetype are famous men, fathers, religious
figures, idealized figures, and adolescents. Jung claimed that it is necessary to
know and recognize that part of our unconscious because it allows us to know
ourselves.

To sum up, in the Jungian analytic psychology, we have behavior patterns

represented through archetypes such as the Persona, the Shadow, and the
Animus and Anima archetype. These archetypes allow us to go through the
process of self-knowledge and the individualization, so if we recognized them, we
can know ourselves better and understand human personality. The Persona
archetype is the social mask that we wear in order to not show who we really are
and it is the most frequently seen in social networks. The Persona appears when
you want to follow the values and norms of society. On the other hand, the Shadow
is the dark side of your personality and it has all the repressed thoughts, desires,
weaknesses, and instincts of a person. In contrast to the Persona archetype, the
Shadow has all the values, behavior, and emotions that are not accepted by
society. The Anima represents the feminine part of a man, and the Animus is the
masculine part of a woman. According to Jung, Our role is not determined by the
physical genre but the psychic identity. There is no doubt that Carl Jung changed
the way psychologists see the human personality and human behavior, but also he
discovered a new component of our psyche which is the collective unconscious
and where we can find these archetypes.