The Jungian Philosophy: The Collective Unconscious

Hey everyone,

Today I will be talking about Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist,  who is heavily tied into Ms. Glacel’s methods and understanding in her play therapy sessions. While Jung has been influential in many different parts of psychiatry, three of the major concepts that he developed are archetypes, the collective unconscious and introvert/extrovert personalities. All of these principles are different kinds of groupings of man kind that are used to explain personality and behavior.

I will first be explaining what the collective unconscious is and how that relates to art therapy. The collective unconscious is a Jungian principle that was developed off of the Freudian concepts of personality and behavior. According to Jung the collective unconscious along with the ego and the unconscious create the human psyche. The ego, relating to Freud’s initial concept of the id, ego and super ego, is used to maintain a balance the basic needs of humans while also keeping morality in mind. The unconscious is also another personal component to the mind; it relates to underlying emotions and memories that we as humans feel. The concept of the unconscious or the personal unconscious was also derived from Sigmund Freud. Finally, the collective unconscious is a concept that Jung created. Jung believes that the collective unconscious is a shared amount of knowledge that all humans have that is passed down from our ancestors.

Because these Jungian traits are related to personality and behavior, it is understandable as to how they come into play in Art Therapy. Ms. Glacel hopes that during play therapy sessions her client utilizes the collective unconscious in order communicate difficult problems that they are facing. Ms. Glacel then uses her knowledge of the collective unconscious to help her clients navigate these problems.

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Jung

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439