Los Arquetipos de acuerdo a Karl Jung

This book is a collection of Jung's articles dealing with the archetypes of the collective unconscious.
In it, Jung expands the definition Freud used of the unconscious, which Jung refers to as the
personal unconscious, which is simply the collection of all things forgotten. The collective
unconscious is trans-personal and common to all members of our species. It contains primary ideas
or symbols that guide the development of people, formed though millennia of human behaviors
becoming in part encoded in our genetic make up, much like instinctual behavior in animals.
Personally, I feel that if a bird can spontaneously remember how to build a nest, I do not see it
difficult at all for a human to recognize a mother or perhaps remember how to spiritually cultivate
his/her self. However, there is no one direct expression of any one archetype as they are colored by
the experiences of the individual consciousness. Life experiences that seem to take on a larger
than life significance often are those that pair up with the archetypes. Such archetypes are the way
we relate to our parents, to our spouses and even how we transform spiritually. It is crucial that
these archetypes are allowed to express themselves spontaneously in the individual, for if they
solidify, they cease to interact with the world and their energy begins to stagnate in the unconscious
where it will eventually erupt. Much of religion then, according to Jung, is a means to express the
archetypal energy of the individual in a healthy and productive fashion. It is important to note that
the rational process, which distances the individual from the act or thought primarily squelches the
spontaneity of this energy, which is subjective and often synchronistic. The consequence of not
expressing this energy is impulsive thoughts and behavior that makes up the shadow, or the
collection of all neglected energetic impulses.

This book is an explanation of some of the more regularly encountered archetypes. The first
archetype Jung deals with is the mother, which symbolically represents fertility on many levels, from
a plowed field to the alma mater of academic institutions to Kundalini shakti or the primordial
generative energy of prakriti or matter. The mother is also represented as the terrible mother as
found in the Hindu goddess Kali. Jung goes on to write about the various neuroses that may result
when a child identifies their own shadow with their biological mother. It its worse case, this can lead
to "Don Juan-ism" in men and hyper-femininity in women. At its best, it leads to compassion and
sensitivity in men and a healthy awareness of oneself as mother in women.

Rebirth is another primary archetype whose expressions can be found anywhere from religious
beliefs in the afterlife to the journey of the hero in mythology. Jung mentions spiritual cultivation is
the process of uncovering this transformative archetype, which is expressed well in Christian
mysticism and Hindu Yoga (presumably the Yoga Sutras). Jung gives many examples of dreams in
which an individual is confronting their own unconscious so that they can grow beyond their current
limited mental state. He also gives the detailed story of a female painter who transferred her
religious development into mandala paintings. Jung carefully explains how the patient is dealing
with her archetypes by how they are expressed in each of the paintings. Other archetypes covered
are the child (new-ness, potential for change, virgin birth, continuation), Persephone (mother-
daughter relationship), various quests of fairytales and the trickster figure (the success of non-
thinking).

In brief, this book presents plentiful examples in which Jung demonstrates how seemingly universal
concepts manifest in patients' psyches. By doing so, Jung gives the reader ample evidence to
support his method and theory.
Los Arquetipos de acuerdo a Karl Jung