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Carl Jung – a Swedish psychiatrist and a psychologist

Carl Jung was a Swedish psychiatrist and a psychologist. And during his 86 years of life, from1875 to 1961 developed the analytical psychology. He based his theories on the works of his close friend and mentor Sigmund Freud: the psychoanalytical theories. Early on in his career Jung followed Freud and supported his theories, but as Jung found aspects of Freud’s theories that he found disagreements with, Jung parted and formulated his own (Anthony). In turn, his theories would “go beyond psychology and affect theology, philosophy, and anthropology”, according to George H. Pollock in World Book Encyclopedia.

Jung was born on July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland. Son to Johnannes Paul Achilles Jung, a priest, Jung well understood religion and tradition. His childhood was filled with times spent alone exploring his fantasies and dreams which developed a life long interest in superstition and mythology. Later this would become the foundation for his theories, explains Pollock. At first, Jung entered the University of Basil interested in the field of archaeology, but his interests changed. In 1902, he graduated from the University of Zurich as an expert in the field of medicine (a doctor).

Along with a good background on biology, zoology, paleontology, and archaeology, Jung went to study reactions and responses that patients had to “stimulus” words. Jung referred to these reactions as “complexes”. With the documentation of this work, Jung won international renown and found himself befriending Freud. That year, 1907, Jung and Freud became the best of friends, debating and conversating every concept, every notion that came to them about their studies. Each, bringing out a deeper level of theoretical thought within of the other.

But, every great mind thinks differently, and disputes brought this friendship to an end in 1913. In 1912, Jung published his Psychology of the Unconscious, parting his theories from that of his colleague’s. Jung thought Freud emphasis on sexual instincts on human behavior was a bit much, therefore, ending his friendship with his companion. During the last 50 years of Jung’s life, he made trips to a variety of different countries. He expanded his knowledge on mythology and history by doing so and it resulted in the publication of his Psychological Types in 1921 (Encarta).

Jung continued to write on his analytical psychology theories along with the relationship between religious beliefs and psychological therapy until his death on June 6, 1961 (http://www. eskimo. com/dcs). Jung explains his theories in the psychological sense. He divided his theory into 3 core parts or psyches. First is the ego. This is the conscious state of every human, the personified traits and characteristics everyone shows to the world. “The second psyche is the personal unconscious” (Gannon, http://usd. edu/tgannon/Jungbio. html).

This division would include memories or recollections of past events. These images could easily be pictured in the minds of people, but have been stored for some odd reason. The Jung Society of Seattle (http://eskimo. com/dcs/) says his third psyche is what separates his theories from others: his collective unconscious. This is the knowledge that everyone has that contains information that has been collected by everyone in the past, present and future. Jung based this speculation on experiences connected with dj vu and love at first sight.

But more supportive to this idea of a collective unconscious is the creative parallels shared by artists in the fields of music, art, psychology, language, etc. They all partake in a spiritual or inner psyche that relates their knowledge to the understanding of (even) an abstract concept of immense complexity that result in equally and similar observations and opinions. Dr. George Boeree (http://ship. edu/cgboeree/jung. html), while supporting the Jungian theories, gave a good example of this collective unconscious. “It is the near death experience” (Boeree).

He observed that there are a large variety of religions in the world today (which isn’t a big observation). “But even though there is this variety of cults, their descriptions of the encounter with death have strange similarities” (Boeree). That is, all say they are floating over their physical self and are attracted towards a tunnel with a bright light at the end. They are graced with a happy scene with religious figures and relatives from the past and future, but sadden when a renewed life force pulls them away from this joyous scenery, back into their bodies.

But the core of the collective unconscious resides in his archetypes. Also referred to as “dominants, imagos, mythological and primdorial images”, archetypes are the instincts within everybody (Boeree). It is the view, perception, feel, and reaction we relate to a certain experience that was not influenced in us, but instinctively implanted in us all. One archetype that Jung explains well is the mother archetype. It has a caring and nurturing nature. Once again, Boeree explains as human babies, we tend to want and seek out this idealized character to fulfill its early needs.

The mother figure can also be seen in the world around us. It’s the origin, caretaker, or giver of life. We have the Mother Earth for our resources and supplies. Another archetype is the mana power, or spiritual power. It is the spiritual demands or need for something in reality that the unconscious calls for in the world of dreams in a symbolic manner. For example, Dr. George Boeree says, “the need of seeds or crops: a person could have dreams of semen because it is understood that semen represents fertility and fertilization like seeds and semen. ” Archetypes also involve direct opposites.

Like shadow and persona. Shadow is the animal instincts within everyone. These are the un-praised traits that a particular person doesn’t want to exuberate to the world. On the other hand, the persona is the self-image that is desired to be expressed to the outer world. It might be the true identity of that person, but could also be a mask or just a personality shown just to make a good impression. Sometimes, the person might know that its the false impression, but others might not realize that it is the false imagery (Boeree). The Jungian Society of Atlanta (http://jungatlanta. om/) agrees and expands to say other simpler archetypes include specific traits within characters seem in fantasies, books, movies, theater, reality, etc.

These could be certain traits that everyone branded on that character. Like the father, who symbolizes authority and guidance, or the hero, who is powerful and strong but has little brain manner and impulsive actions. Others symbolic characters involved with specific traits include the wise old man, ordinary man, god, animal, maiden, and trickster. Jung says that there are numerous archetypes and sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the concepts presented by the subject.

Anima and animus are more archetypes. These are the traits usually associated with men and women. While men are perceived to be strong and have ignorance towards emotions, women are supposed to have a nurturing nature and a less aggressive stance. Jung tells us that we all are both male and female. It is just the development of the particular organs in the fetus, our branding of gender concerning the organs, and the influences that our societies place on us to be female or male. This would mean that we have traits of both genders in us, but one is forced to radiate over the other due to our physical makeup and societies.

This would lead to Jung’s most important archetype, self. This is the goal of everyone’s life. This is the balance of our emotions, of our actions and feelings. This is when one reaches transcendence of opposites so that every personality is expressed equally. One is now neither opposite nor it’s opposite. This includes the balance of his Principles of Opposites, Entropy, Equivalence, Extroversion and Introversion. The scale of balance on both sides is now equal and no energy is stored into one side or the other.

There’s no longer any energy to act because one no longer desires to do anything else. “Then one dies and then reaches one’s true self” (Boeree). As I read through chapter fourteen in Bless Me Ultima I saw a very strong sense of character displayed by Narsico. Like Derek Chan stated in class, “a knight in shining armor”. It is his act of heroism: his journey through the snowstorm to deliver the urgent news to Utlima. And as I look back upon what I’ve read in the book so far, I can directly make connections between certain characteristics to specific characters.

Mainly these characteristics are those of idealized, respected traits. Now that I see this, I take back my statement of Anaya “just telling a story”. And I see that, maybe, Anaya has even based his book on concepts relating to Jung’s theories. This is because I see the archetypes within BMU. The certain characters that we related to certain people: Ultima, the curandara or wise elder and Evil as Tenario and his three daughters. I also see the struggle in which Tony has to find Jung’s biggest archetype, self. He is confused and uncertain of what his true path is.

His mother comes from a completely different world than that of his father’s. One is wild and free roaming while the other is settled down and religious, and then we have other mixtures of paths that he could take. The paths that lead to pagan worship: the Golden Carp or the mysterious magic of Ultima. But Jung says the goal of life is to reach a balance between our differences whether it be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. And this is how I think the book will end and Tony will discover himself: through balance.

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