Further Examination of the Collective Unconscious (Archetypes)
Based on his experiences with schizophrenic persons, Jung concept of collective unconscious are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations. Jung explained the different types of archetypes, the self, shadow, anima, animus, and persona. Jung discovered that humans have a "preconscious psychic disposition that enables them to react in a human manner." The archetype may emerge into consciousness in myriads of variations. To put it another way, there are a very few basic archetypes or patterns which exist at the unconscious level, but there are an infinite variety of specific images which point back to these few patterns. Since these potentials for significance are not under conscious control, we may tend to fear them and deny their existence through repression as we seek control and conscious awareness of our being. Jung tried to link the origin of archetypes to heredity and regarded them as instinctual. He suggested that we are born with these patterns which structure our imagination and make it distinctly human. Archetypes are therefore defined as seeds or patterns that form the basic blueprint for major aspects of the human personality. They pre-exist in the collective unconscious of humanity and repeat themselves in the psyches of humans and determine how they perceive, behave, and react. These seeds or patterns are inborn within each person and are part of the inherited legacy of human beings that exist or dwell as energy within the collective unconscious and are part of the psychological life of all peoples the world over. In other words, it is everywhere at all times as they are both inside and outside of the individual person (Jung et al., 1980; Shelburne 1988).
Summary
The collective unconscious in the African Education system
This view of the collective unconscious as an inner drive established on distinct historical background is a relatively fresh approach and somewhat controversial. Sustenance of the African American will to be thoroughly educated is examined from the archetypes passed down from one generation to the next.
Just prior to the dawn of the Christian age, Africa was the predominant place to go for education. People from all over the world came to study in its great institutions and libraries. Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle are just a few of the Greeks who spent years studying the ancient philosophies and sciences (James 1992). A significant reduction in these excellent establishments occurred during the era of slavery. We find the first IBIs (Independent Black Institutions) in the Americas during the period of chattel slavery under what would appear to be impossible conditions for creating educational institutions. It was a crime, punishable by death, to teach an enslaved person to read and write (Cornelius 1991; Douglass 1968). The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln brought an invasion of Northern White missionaries to the South with the intent of establishing schools for African Americans. While these newly introduced education systems were not just less expensive but equally enriching, the need for independent black educational institution was of key importance to the black heritage. Further, it seems highly reasonable for us to ask what it is that has historically sustained African American’s desire to get an education and to achieve. The answer to this question can be found by turning to the intellectual, historical, and narrative traditions of African Americans and asking about their distinct beliefs about education.
Collective unconscious in native Indians (Laos, New Mexico)
Jung learned from the Indians and eventually contributes towards his own ideology of the archetypes. The key part of Jung’s learning from this Laos experience is the need for humans to have a sense of their own individual and cultural significance which Jung suggests is necessary for psychological health. In this article, we are given a description of C. G. Jung's meeting with Mountain Lake, a Hopi elder, and other Native Americans during his visit to Taos, New Mexico in 1925. Jung gained awareness from his brief encounter in New Mexico of his imprisonment "in the cultural consciousness of the white man" (Jung, 1973, p. 247).
At the Taos pueblo, Jung spoke for the first time with a non-white, a Hopi elder named Antonio Mirabal (also known as Ochwiay Biano and Mountain Lake), who told Jung of the difference between them (Indians) and the white man. He described whites as always restless, in pursuit of dominance wherever they go, and also their methods of reasoning. We think that they are mad", he (Mountain lake) said, in referring to the white people. (Jung, 1973, p. 248). Jung asked him why he thought the whites were mad, and the reply was “‘they say that they think with their heads . . . we think here,' he said, indicating his heart" (p. 248).
Jung's theory of psychological types has been compared to the circular sand paintings of the Navajo, which symbolize the mythical history of the gods, the ancestors and mankind (Sandner, 1991). Duran (1995) graphically represented the four Jungian personality types on two axes (north/thinking; east/sensation; south/feeling; and west/intuition. Others have placed the types in different positions on a circle (north/sensation; east/thinking; south/intuition; and west/feeling (Moodley & West, 2005). Which type goes with which compass point is, apparently, not important, as long as thinking is opposite feeling and sensation is opposite intuition. Two additional psychological functions of introversion and extraversion could be visualized as being above and below the center of the circle. For an individual, the goal is to walk in balance at the center of the sphere (Duran, 2006).
Jung attributed the dignity and serenity of the Pueblo Indians to their relationship to the deity, and their belief that their rituals were essential to keep the universe functioning (Berger & Segaller, 2000) Jung concluded in his learning from the Laos experience that all humans need a belief system to make sense of the universe, even if every culture has a different belief system, and there is no way to know which (if any) belief system is correct. He disapproved of the American rationalism that involves results in narrow mindedness (quoted in Berger & Segaller, 2000, p. 153), to which he proposed a solution; getting in touch with ones feelings more than thinking rationally.
Collective unconscious in African dream representation
To black Africans (being one myself), dreams are much more than a night reflection, they are the roadmap for navigating life’s course. Rather than analyzing them, they carry their dreams around with them, becoming familiar with them and often sharing them with others (Buhrmann & Gqomfa, 1982). Among the Xhosa people living in south-east, South Africa, the ancestors were believed to be mediators between them and God. This article suggests that the ancestors are images of the parent archetype (Weinrich, 1989/90) and that God is an image of the Self archetype (CW 11).
In the West African culture (Nigeria for example); dreams are considered a meeting ground of an individual spiritual self with the divine. Messages are received and implemented in the physical state. A lot of West Africans make life decisions based on their night visions on major issues like marriage, and life careers.
This article suggest that although many people believe that they do not dream, research findings do indicate that everyone has a series of dreams each night. Von Franz (Boa & Von Franz, 1994, p. 13) He suggests that a lack of dream indicates what he regards as “dream constipation”, and that the loss of one’s dream is a sign of depression. Dreams are seen as illuminating experiences that lifts depression and empowers the soul.
Conclusion
Carl Jung’s work and dedication to the archetypes opens up a display of cultural and individual differences. The concept of self awareness and uniqueness is echoed in each of these articles. The first paper that addresses the African educational system models a distinct heritage and simultaneously contrasts the western education systems as well. However, the serene and peaceful life of the native Indians (despite of the ‘white man’s” occupation) was a bit over emphasized in Carl Jung’s report of his experience in New Mexico as many native Indians resorted to drinking to ease their pain of the oppression.
While the dream representation of the African people is associated with deity and seen as a form of direction, it is also erroneous to conclude that dreams are sources of answers to everyday life problems and the only source of one’s spiritual well being.
References
Lawson Bush, V, Ph.D., Edward C. Bush, Ph.D. and Tonia Causey-Bush, PhD
(2006) The Journal of Pan African Studies, vo.1, no.6
Van Breda, A. D., (1999). Parallels between Jungian and black African views on dreams. Clinical Social Work Journal, 27, 141-153.
Timothy C. Thomason, Lessons of Jung's Encounter with Native Americans (2008)
