Editing Collective unconscious (section)

== Instincts ==
Jung's exposition of the collective unconscious builds on the classic issue in psychology and biology regarding [[nature versus nurture]]. If we accept that nature, or heredity, has some influence on the individual psyche, we must examine the question of how this influence takes hold in the real world.<ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 9.I (1959), "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" (1936), ¶92 (p. 44). "The hypothesis of the collective unconscious is, therefore, no more daring than to assume there are instincts. One admits readily that human activity is influenced to a high degree by instincts, quite apart from the rational motivations of the conscious mind. [...] The question is simply this: are there or are there not unconscious universal forms of this kind? If they exist, then there is a region of the psyche which one can call the collective unconscious."</ref>

On exactly one night in its entire lifetime, the [[Tegeticula yuccasella|yucca moth]] discovers pollen in the opened flowers of the yucca plant, forms some into a pellet, and then transports this pellet, with one of its eggs, to the pistil of another yucca plant. This activity cannot be "learned"; it makes more sense to describe the yucca moth as experiencing [[Intuition (mind)|intuition]] about how to act.<ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 8 (1960), "Instinct and the Unconscious" (1919/1948), ¶268–269 (pp. 131–132). Note: Jung refers to ''Pronuba yucasella'', now apparently classified as ''Tegeticula yucasella''. See also: "[http://prairieecologist.com/2010/12/08/the-yucca-and-its-moth/ The Yucca and Its Moth]", ''The Prairie Ecologist'', 8 December 2010.</ref> Archetypes and instincts coexist in the collective unconscious as interdependent opposites, Jung would later clarify.<ref name="Glass1974" /><ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 8 (1960), "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1947/1954), ¶406 (pp. 206–207). "Archetype and instinct are the most polar opposites imaginable, as can easily be seen when one compares a man who is ruled by his instinctual drives with a man who is seized by the spirit. But, just as between all opposites there obtains so close a bond that no position can be established or even thought of without its corresponding negation, so in this case also 'les extrêmes se touchent' [...] they subsist side by side as reflections in our own minds of the opposition that underlies all psychic energy."</ref> Whereas for most animals intuitive understandings completely intertwine with instinct, in humans the archetypes have become a separate register of mental phenomena.<ref name="Shelburne44to48">Shelburne, ''Mythos and Logos'' (1988) pp. 44–48.</ref>

Humans experience five main types of [[instinct]], wrote Jung: hunger, sexuality, activity, reflection, and creativity. These instincts, listed in order of increasing abstraction, elicit and constrain human behavior, but also leave room for freedom in their implementation and especially in their interplay. Even a simple hungry feeling can lead to many different responses, including metaphorical [[sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]].<ref name="Shelburne44to48" /><ref>Jung, ''Collected Works'' vol. 8 (1960), "Instinct and the Unconscious" (1936/1942), ¶235–246 (pp. 115–118).</ref> These instincts could be compared to the "[[Drive theory|drives]]" discussed in psychoanalysis and other domains of psychology.<ref>Singer, ''Culture and the Collective Unconscious'' (1968), p. 96.</ref> Several readers of Jung have observed that in his treatment of the collective unconscious, Jung suggests an unusual mixture of primordial, "lower" forces, and spiritual, "higher" forces.<ref name="Hunt">Harry T. Hunt, "A collective unconscious reconsidered: Jung's archetypal imagination in the light of contemporary psychology and social science"; ''Journal of Analytical Psychology'' 57, 2012.</ref>