Exploring the Self Cultures History or Religion Through Myth

¶ … Myth Exploring Self, Culture, History, Religion Exploring the Self, Cultures, History, or Religion through Myth Mythology (general) PO Box, 60453, LIVINGSTONE Dear Lee, How are you my little friend and how is everyone at your home? I hope all doing good. Pass my greetings to them. I received your letter and was happy to know that you have been promoted to 4 rth and the final year of your college. Wow! You'll graduate after a year.

Lee! You mentioned in your letter that you have chosen Mythology (general) as your elective subject and that you are facing some difficulties in it. I went through the attached course outline; there I found out that you will be exploring self, cultures, history, or religion through myth. Also there was a list of theories that you will be presenting throughout this course.

I have collected some data regarding the first theory "Carl Jung's archetypes and the collective unconscious." This data will help you in understanding and presenting this theory as your assignment later on. I have also searched for some references that I will quote throughout this letter so that you can grasp my ideas quickly. First of all know that Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist. He believed that models of behaviors, personalities or people are archetypes.

He was the first person to suggest that the human psyche is composed of 3 components such as the ego, the collective unconscious and the personal unconscious. According to him the "conscious mind" is represented by the ego. On the other hand memories are contained by the personal conscious. This includes the suppressed memories as well. Jung further specified that collective conscious is a unique part of the psyche and it serves as a form of inheritance (psychological). This part contains of experiences and knowledge that humans share as species.

Before moving further, I guess you should first know about the origins of archetypes. "The most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes. In their present form they are variants of archetypal ideas…it is the function of consciousness, not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses, but to translate into visible reality the world within us" (Jung 1970). These words of Jung describe the actual place where the archetypes exist; the collective unconscious.

According to this Swiss theorist these models are universal, innate and hereditary. Also the archetypes function to organize our learning experience. "Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious, are psychic innate dispositions to experience, represent basic human behavior and situations. Birth, death, power and failure are controlled by archetypes. Religious and mystique experiences are also governed by archetypes" (carl-jung.net). Lee I hope you are grasping my explanation.

I am trying to use easy terms so that you face no difficulty in understanding the use of myths for exploring certain features of a personality. On the last page of this letter you will find the links to all the in-text citations. In this way you can visit the links to gain more knowledge and the specific information. Now let's move further. Carl Jung identified four archetypes.

According to other theorists and authors it was Carl Jung, who identified these major archetypes, namely: the Self, the Shadow, the Persona, the Anima and Animus. Unification of consciousness and unconsciousness of an individual is represented by the "Self." This archetype occurs through individuation, which is a process created soon after the integration of the personality's aspects. The second archetype is the "Shadow." This consists of the life and sex instincts. This archetype is composed of weaknesses, repressed ideas, instincts, desires and shortcomings.

The darker side of any human psyche is often described for this archetype. Carl Jung also suggested that the shadow can appear in visions and dreams. Surprisingly it can also appear as a monster, a snake, a dragon or some other wild and dark figure. The third archetype is the "Anima and Animus." Jung defined Anima as a feminine image that is present in the psyche of a male while Animus is a male image that is present in the psyche of a female. These terms represent the true self.

The combination of both the images is called as the divine couple (Syzygy- it means wholeness, completion and unification). The last archetype is the "Persona." This term means "mask." The persona represents different social masks of the human beings. The masks change according to situations and groups.

"The persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world.it is just the good impression we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us.it can also be the false impression we use to manipulate people's opinions and behaviors" (Boeree 2006). So Lee I guess it is enough guidance regarding the famous Swiss theorist. No doubt his theories and suggestions have been proved by other theorists in the long run.

Now I am going to share an example related to my life that is based on the same myth. "No matter into which culture we are born we all share a common human experience: vulnerability. The human baby is born vulnerable and must be taken care of by others in order to survive. Each of us has to develop a personality that will get our essential needs met from the adults around us" (Integration Training). The needs of human beings are approval, attention and affection. These are the primary selves.

The opposite of these primary selves would be rebellious, selfish and easy going. The identification of the particular primary self is very important. My great little friend! If you ask me about my traits of personality; I would say that I have a switching personality. May be I am quoting this because my personal selves change quickly. They often turn in to opposite of the primary selves. Let us suppose there is a house that has four rooms.

There lives only one person in each room therefore there are 4 residents in all. They are namely: love, anger, hard-work and sensitive. Love spends most of his time looking after the house. He treats every person in the house with great care and welcomes their guests every time. Hard-work accompanies him while cleaning.