Carl Jung's Cognitive Theory, Archetypes, and Dream Psychology

Overview of Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is a multidisciplinary field comprising cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology. In recent years, cognitive science has become a predominant paradigm in studies of the mind. It incorporates concepts and methods from philosophy and cognitive psychology, whereas behaviorism dominated the psychological sciences during the first part of the 20th century. Cognitive scientists are interested in the mental structures and processes of the mind.

Several individuals have attempted more rigorous definitions of cognitive science. A computational view emphasizes that cognitive science, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, tries to elucidate the workings of the mind by treating them as computations — not necessarily of the sort carried out by the digital computer, but of a sort that lies within a broader theory of computation (Johnson-Laird, 2009). More restrictive definitions of cognitive science, however, include only one or another of the divergent models that cognitive scientists have developed.

Early cognitive scientists viewed the mind as a processor, similar to the early digital computer. The mind was seen as a passive recipient of information, which was registered in short-term memory and perhaps encoded in long-term memory. More recent cognitive scientists have pointed out that the mind is a parallel processor, and have emphasized that mental structures are active and that they occur within a particular context. Such work may be excluded by a definition of cognitive science that focuses exclusively on information processing and computation (Esgate, 2004).

Jung and Cognition

Cognitive science models typically specify cognitive architecture in one of two ways: symbolic and connectionist. The elements of symbolic systems are symbols, which are stored in associative constructs. A strong proponent of the symbolic theory of cognition was psychologist Carl Jung, who described cognitive processes in greater detail — yet still based on two unique rubrics: perception and judgment. Sensation and intuition are types of perception; thinking and feeling are two kinds of judgment. In the 1940s, Isabel Myers developed an extension of these theories, formulating a self-reporting questionnaire to help individuals work with their own understanding of Jung's theoretical construct (Eisner et al., "Levels of Learning," 2009).

With the advent of more advanced study in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, the 20th century brought new theories regarding myths. Jung, for instance, argued that all humans share certain innate unconscious psychological forces — archetypes — which express themselves as myths and are similar across cultures because they originate not through culture, but through the individual. Myths thereby reflect patterns in the mind, and those patterns are more fixed (e.g., raw vs. cooked, nature vs. culture). While myth has survived across the centuries to reflect societal organization, contemporary society can benefit by using myth to uncover deeper psychological truths about oneself (Segal, 2004).

Psychology and psychoanalytical theory do not develop or evolve in a vacuum. Instead, it is more typical that each new framework builds upon past theories, leading to more robust explanations that a new scholar can interpret and extend. For instance, the psychoanalytical (also known as psychodynamic) approach was developed by Sigmund Freud and stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts, behaviors, and the development of personality traits and psychological problems later in life.

Freud believed there were three components of personality: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind. At birth, a baby's mind is essentially a "bundle of id" — it contains all the basic needs and feelings, is the source of libido, and operates according to a single rule: the "pleasure principle." The ego functions with the rational part of the mind. It realizes the need for compromise and negotiates between the id and the superego. The ego's job is to satisfy the id's pleasures while remaining reasonable and bearing long-term consequences in mind, denying both instant gratification and excessive delaying of it. The superego functions with the moral part of the mind. It stores and enforces rules, and its power to do so comes from its ability to create anxiety.

Jung as Practical Psychotherapy

Jung embellished this typology by organizing it into ways personalities live in the world — the functional attitudes of extraversion and introversion. In addition, he identified four basic personality functions that model the manner in which an individual gathers data about the world: Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling (Sharp, 1987).

Taking the Jungian approach, Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs took these indicators and formulated a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure the way individuals perceive the world and make decisions about themselves and their environment. It has become one of the most widely used personality assessments. While some academics feel that it does not provide convincing data, others find that it has a great deal of consistency and reliability in predicting the manner in which an individual might approach a problem, colleagues, or a task — and even how that individual might relate to stressors in the environment (Capraro, 2002).

It is also quite interesting that many of these personality types correspond to types identified in the ancient world, specifically around 190 AD by Galen:

Source: Chapman (2010).

In many ways, this comparison stresses the validity of Jung's argument. First, that the personality types can stand up over time regardless of culture and remain meaningful in the interpretation of the persona. Second, that the descriptors used must have a more universal commonality within the human condition to have remained valid for over 2,000 years. Third, that the very nature of what it is to be human can often be defined by the way we approach the world.