Part of a series of articles on Psychoanalysis

Concepts Psychosexual development Psychosocial development Conscious • Preconscious • Unconscious Psychic apparatus Id, ego, and super-ego Libido • Drive Transference • Ego defenses • Resistance Important figures Alfred Adler • Nancy Chodorow Erik Erikson • Ronald Fairbairn Anna Freud • Sigmund Freud Karen Horney • Ernest Jones Carl Jung • Melanie Klein Heinz Kohut • Jacques Lacan Margaret Mahler • Otto Rank Harry Stack Sullivan Susan Sutherland Isaacs Important works The Interpretation of Dreams Beyond the Pleasure Principle Civilization and Its Discontents Schools of thought Self psychology • Lacanian • Object relations Interpersonal • Relational Ego psychology

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Collective Unconscious, sometimes known as Collective Subconscious, is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. While Freud did not distinguish between an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal subconscious particular to each human being. The collective subconscious is also known as "a reservoir of the experiences of our species."¹

Collective subconscious in Jung's works

In his earlier writings, Jung called this aspect of the psyche the collective unconscious. He later changed the term to objective psyche. The objective psyche may be considered objective for two reasons: it is common to everyone; and it has a better sense of the self's ideal than the ego or conscious self does. It thus directs the self, via archetypes, dreams, and intuition, and drives the person to make mistakes on purpose. In this way, it moves the psyche toward individuation, or self-actualization.

In the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's seminal work Psychological Types, under the definition of "collective" Jung references representations collectives, a term coined by Levy-Bruhl in his 1910 book How Natives Think. Jung says this is what he describes as the collective unconscious. Freud, on the other hand, did not accept the idea of a collective unconscious.

See also

• 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness (7th circuit)
• Akashic Records
• Archetype
• Collective consciousness
• Over-soul
• Pantheism
• Paramatman
• Synchronicity
• Spiritus Mundi
• Subconscious mind
• Unconscious mind
• Weltanschauung (World view)

Further reading

• Jung, Carl. The Development of Personality.
• Jung, Carl. (1970). "Psychic conflicts in a child.", Collected Works of C. G. Jung, 17. Princeton University Press. 235 p. (p. 1-35).
• Whitmont, Edward C. (1969). The Symbolic Quest. Princeton University Press.
• Gallo, Ernest. "Synchronicity and the Archetypes," Skeptical Inquirer, 18 (4). Summer 1994.

External links

• Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism A pictorial and written archive of mythological, ritualistic, and symbolic images from all over the world and from all epochs of human history.
• The Collective unconscious Theatre
• Kaleidoscope Forum Jungian Discussion Forum. All levels of discourse welcomed.

Footnotes

1. ^ Jensen, Peter S., Mrazek, David, Knapp, Penelope K., Steinberg, Laurence, Pfeffer, Cynthia, Schowalter, John, & Shapiro, Theodore. (Dec 1997) Evolution and revolution in child psychiatry: ADHD as a disorder of adaptation. (attention-deficit hyperactivity syndrome). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 36. p. 1672. (10). July 14 2007.

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