Fifth Business

Robertson Davies
Depth Psychology
Autobiography and
Personal Mythology
Catholicism and
Hagiography
The Heros Journey

Depth Psychology

Freud and Jung

Conscious and Unconscious Mind
Collective Unconscious
Persona
Individuation
Archetypes
Shadow
Wise Old Person
Anima and Animus
Archetypal Literary Criticism
Synchronicity

Jung and Freud

Carl Gustav Jung

Sigmund Freud

Conscious and Unconscious Mind

First coined by German
Philosopher Frederic
Shelling
Brought into English by poet
Samuel Coleridge Taylor
Made popular by Freud
Thoughts that occur in the
mind but are not available
for introspection
Repressed feelings,
automatic skills, subliminal
perceptions, thoughts,
habits, and automatic
reactions

Collective
Unconscio
us
A Second
Unconscious
System

Collective
Universal
Impersonal
Identical in
everyone
Consists of
archetypes
(pre-existent
forms)

Two Models of the Collective

Unconscious

Persona
"a kind of mask, designed on the one
hand to make a definite impression
upon others, and on the other to
conceal the true nature of the
individual"

Individuation
Individual self
develops from
undifferentiated
unconscious
Holistic healing effect
on people
Person integrates into
a well-functioning
whole

Individuation
"In general, it is the process by which individual beings are
formed and differentiated [from other human beings]; in
particular, it is the development of the psychological individual
as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology."

Archetypes
In Jungian psychology, archetypes refer to a collectively
inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc.,
universally present in individual psyches.

Archetypes

Archetypes

Archetypes can refer

to a constantly
recurring symbol or
motif in:

literature
painting
mythology

SHADOW
unconscious
aspect of the
personality
Because one
tends to reject
or remain
ignorant of the
least desirable
aspects of one's
personality, the
shadow is
largely negative.

WISE OLD
PERSON
The Wise Old
Woman...[or] helpful
"old woman" is a
well-known symbol
in myths and fairy
tales for the wisdom
of the eternal
female nature.

The Wise Old Man

or some other very
powerful aspect of
eternal masculinity
is her male
counterpart.

The Wise Old Man

The Wise or Helpful Old

Woman

ANIMA AND ANIMUS

Anima
The feminine
psychological qualities
of males
Unconscious
Because a man's
sensitivity must often be
repressed, the anima is
one of the most
significant autonomous
complexes of all.

Animus
The masculine
psychological qualities
of females
Unconscious
Jung believed the
animus to be more
complex than the
anima, having a host
of images compared
to the one dominant
image of the anima

Anima and Animus

Synchronicity
The experience of
two or more events
as meaningfully
related, whereas
they are unlikely to
be causally related

Example: A musician
working on the
soundtrack for an
upcoming film is fired.
That day while
walking home he
happens to meet a
woman with whom he
will collaborate in the
future creating the
best work of his life.

Synchronicity - Literary Implications

Stories make meaning that is not
always cause and effect
musician did not meet the woman
because he lost his job
leaving job essential to completing his
life`s work
woman plays important role in his
success

Archetypal Literary Criticism

a type of critical theory that interprets a text
by focusing on recurring myths and
archetypes in the narrative, symbols,
images, and character types in a literary
work.
Archetypal literary criticism argues that
archetypes determine the form and function
of literary works, that a text's meaning is
shaped by cultural and psychological myths.

Autobiography and Personal

Mythology

"I have undertaken, in my

eighty-third year, to tell my
personal myth
Carl Jung autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (p. 3)

Autobiography
Written account of
a person`s life by
that person
Purpose
Audience
Writer

Accuracy
Ego
Truth

Mythology
Truthful depictions
or overelaborated
accounts
Allegory for or
personification of
natural
phenomenon
(including
psychological).
Convey religious or
idealized experience
establish behavioral
models
teach

Personal Mythology
The way we tell our own stories to
ourselves.
To explain inner life
To explain relationship
to outside
Conscious
Unconscious

Catholicism and Hagiology

Hagiography

Hagiology

The biographies of
saints and
ecclesiastical leaders

The study of
hagiography

Saints
Miracles
Men and Women
Exceptionally holy
and virtuous
Present in many
religions
Fifth Business is
concerned with
Roman Catholic
saints

Saints
Many saints for
many kinds of
problems
Davies notes
similarity to
archetypes,
mythology, and
psychology

Monomyth - The Heros

Journey
Joseph Campbell
myths from
disparate times
and regions share
fundamental
structures and
stages