Theories of
Personality:
Carl Jung
Who was Carl Jung?
Carl Jung was born in 1875. He was a wide-ranging
scholar and a pioneering psychologist from the early
20th century until his death in 1961. Carl trained as a
psychiatrist and was at one time part of Freud’s
Psychoanalytic movement. He then moved away with
his own Analytical Psychology. Today’s practitioners
would probably class him as a psychotherapist.Carl
Jung was a pioneering early psychologist and an
early researcher of personality types. His Jungian
Personality Types influenced much of our
understanding of personalities.
complex
Who was Carl Jung?
Jung was a colleague of Freud
He was obsessed with the unconscious mind
But, Jung viewed the unconscious mind differently
than Freud
Jung saw personality development as lifelong
process of striving to reconcile opposite urges
The terms mysticism, occultism, and personality are
not frequently used together. However, Carl Jung's
groundbreaking theory of analytical psychology
united them. As a neo-psychoanalyst, Jung provided
one of the most widely accepted theories of
personality in the discipline. If Freud's idea of
personality was bizarre, Jung's theory is far more
complex.
The Theory
Jung’s theory divided the human mind into three parts:
The Ego
The Personal Unconscious
The Collective Unconscious
Ego
Jung defines this as the unconscious mind
The Personal
Unconscious
Anything that is not presently conscious, but can be. It includes both memories that
are easily brought to mind and those that have been repressed for some reason.
The Collective
Unconscious
This refers to our “Psychic Inheritance”:
The reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with (the
collective memories of the entire human race). We are not directly conscious of it but it
influences all our experiences and behaviours.
According to Jung, this is who so many cultures have the same symbols recurring in their
myths, religion, art, and dreams. The common symbols are referred to as archetypes.
Archetypes
The content of the collective
unconscious are called "Archetypes"
Jung believed humans are not born
"clean slates". He thought we came
into this world with certain pre-
dispositions that cause behaviour.
These behaviours were driven by
archetypes or archetypal behaviour.
Examples of
Archetypes
Family Archetypes:
The Father – Stern, Powerful, Controlling
The Mother – Feeding, Nurturing, Soothing
The Child – Birth, Beginnings, Salvation
Story Archetypes:
The Hero – Rescuer, Champion
The Maiden – Purity, Desire
The Wise Old Man – Knowledge, Guidance
The Magician – Mysterious and Powerful
The Witch or Sorceress - Dangerous
The Trickster – Deceiving and Hidden
Animal Archetypes:
The Faithful Dog – Unquestioning Loyalty
The Enduring Horse – Never Giving Up
The Devious Cat – Self Serving
Examples of
Archetypes
Examples of
Archetypes
Examples of
Archetypes
Examples of
Archetypes
Introvert and
Extrovert
Jung is most famous for his development of
the personality types of INTROVERT and
EXTROVERT. Introverts are people who
prefer their internal world of thoughts,
feelings, and dreams. Extroverts prefer the
external world of things, other people, and
activities.
