Racer Session #023 | Skiff Feldspar | June 20, 2010
An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. The concept of psychological archetypes was advanced by psychiatrist Carl Jung. In Jung’s psychological framework archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype is a complex. Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological constructs that arose through evolution. Archetypes, in this case, can be defined as innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge. Each stage is mediated through a new set of archetypal imperatives which seek fulfillment in action. These may include being parented, initiation, courtship, marriage and preparation for death.
The archetypes form a dynamic substratum common to all humanity, upon the foundation of which each individual builds his/her own experience of life, developing a unique array of psychological characteristics. Thus, while archetypes themselves may be conceived as a relative few innate nebulous forms, from these may arise innumerable images, symbols and patterns of behavior. While the emerging images and forms are apprehended consciously, the archetypes which inform them are elementary structures which are unconscious and impossible to apprehend. Being unconscious, the existence of archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by examining behavior, images, myths, and art. They are inherited potentials which are actualized when they enter consciousness as images(or in this case, sounds) or manifest in behavior on interaction with the outside world.
The unconscious can be defined as that part of the mind which gives rise to a collection of mental phenomena that manifest in a person’s mind but which the person is not aware of at the time of their occurrence. These phenomena include unconscious feelings, unconscious or automatic skills, unnoticed perceptions, unconscious thoughts, unconscious habits and automatic reactions,complexes, hidden phobias and concealed desires.
Personal unconscious is Jung’s term as contrasted with the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is located at the fringe of consciousness, between two worlds: the exterior or spacial world and the interior or psychic objective world.The personal unconscious includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which have at one time been conscious but have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed. The personal unconscious is like most people’s understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. Jung’s theory of a personal unconscious is quite similar to Freud’s creation of a region containing a person’s repressed, forgotten or ignored experiences.
Collective unconscious is a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humans and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from thepersonal unconscious, in that the personal unconscious is a personal reservoir of experience unique to each individual, while thecollective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species.
“…. in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche, there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. Thiscollective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.” - Carl Jung
The shadow is a part of the unconscious mind, consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes. According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to project: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world.
Individual Unconscious
Skiff Feldspar - electric guitar, loops, stomp boxes, misc. devices
- Those Devils
- Why Should I Have To?
- Blame Game Buzzer Shooter
- All I Want For Christmas Is The Apocalypse
Collective Unconscious (Interpretations in group settings…The Racer Sessions!!!)
We live in a time when there dawns upon us a realization that the people living on the other side of the mountain are not made up exclusively of redheaded devils responsible for all the evil on this side of the mountain. - Carl Jung
Author’s Note: I have not cited references for the definitions or explanations into the above concepts. The important thing is that you understand the information. The music, on the other hand, is original with the exception of some samples used in the loops. I’ll cite them after the performance. Enjoy with all your hearts - SF