Editing Collective unconscious (section)

== Basic explanation ==
The term "collective unconscious" first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious".<ref>[[Polly Young-Eisendrath|Young-Eisendrath]] & Dawson, ''Cambridge Companion to Jung'' (2008), "Chronology" (pp. xxiii–xxxvii). According to the 1953 ''Collected Works'' editors, the 1916 essay was translated by M. Marsen from German into French and published as "La Structure de l'inconscient" in ''[[Archives de Psychologie]]'' XVI (1916); they state that the original German manuscript no longer exists.</ref> This essay distinguishes between the "personal", Freudian unconscious, filled with sexual fantasies and repressed images, and the "collective" unconscious encompassing the soul of humanity at large.<ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 7 (1953), "The Structure of the Unconscious" (1916), ¶437–507 (pp. 263–292).</ref>

In "The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology" (November 1929), Jung wrote:
{{blockquote|And the essential thing, psychologically, is that in dreams, fantasies, and other exceptional states of mind the most far-fetched mythological motifs and symbols can appear [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autochthonous autochthonously] at any time, often, apparently, as the result of particular influences, traditions, and excitations working on the individual, but more often without any sign of them. These "primordial images" or "archetypes," as I have called them, belong to the basic stock of the unconscious psyche and cannot be explained as personal acquisitions. Together they make up that psychic stratum which has been called the collective unconscious. <br /> 
The existence of the collective unconscious means that individual consciousness is anything but a ''tabula rasa'' and is not immune to predetermining influences. On the contrary, it is in the highest degree influenced by inherited presuppositions, quite apart from the unavoidable influences exerted upon it by the environment. The collective unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings. It is the matrix of all conscious psychic occurrences, and hence it exerts an influence that compromises the freedom of consciousness in the highest degree, since it is continually striving to lead all conscious processes back into the old paths.<ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 8 (1960), "The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology" (1929), ¶229–230 (p. 112).</ref>}}

On October 19, 1936, Jung delivered a lecture "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" to the Abernethian Society at [[St. Bartholomew's Hospital]] in London.<ref name=ConceptOfThe>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 9.I (1959), "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" (1936), p. 42. Editors' note: "Originally given as a lecture to the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, on October 19, 1936, and published in the Hospital's ''Journal'', XLIV (1936/37), 46–49, 64–66. The present version has been slightly revised by the author and edited in terminology."</ref> He said:

{{blockquote| My thesis then, is as follows: in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective 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.<ref>C. G. Jung, ''The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious'' (London 1996) p. 43</ref>}}

Jung linked the collective unconscious to "what Freud called 'archaic remnants' &ndash; mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in the individual's own life and which seem to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind".<ref>C. G. Jung, ''Man and his Symbols'' (London 1978) p. 57</ref> He credited Freud for developing his "primal horde" theory in ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' and continued further with the idea of an archaic ancestor maintaining its influence in the minds of present-day humans. Every human being, he wrote, "however high his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche."<ref>Singer, ''Culture and the Collective Unconscious'' (1968), pp. 30–31. Quoting Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 10 (1964), "Archaic Man" (1931), ¶105 (p. 51).</ref>

As modern humans go through their process of [[individuation]], moving out of the collective unconscious into mature selves, they establish a [[Persona (psychology)|persona]]—which can be understood simply as that small portion of the collective psyche which they embody, perform, and identify with.<ref>Singer, ''Culture and the Collective Unconscious'' (1968), p. 122. "The contents which refuse to fit into this image which man tries to present to his world are either overlooked and forgotten, or repressed and denied. What is left is an arbitrary segment of collective psyche, which Jung has called the <u>persona</u>. The word <u>persona</u> is appropriate, since it originally meant the mask worn by an actor, signifying the role he played."</ref>

The collective unconscious exerts overwhelming influence on the minds of individuals. These effects of course vary widely, however, since they involve virtually every emotion and situation. At times, the collective unconscious can terrify, but it can also heal.<ref name="Glass1974">James M. Glass, "The Philosopher and the Shaman: The Political Vision as Incantation", ''Political Theory'' 2.2, May 1974.</ref>