Archetypes Portraits

Carl Gustav Jung developed an understanding of archetypes as being “ancient or archaic images that
derive from the collective unconscious” (which is formed over the millennia and in every member of our
species).
Archetypes have a key role in individuation, the psychological process of integrating the opposites
including the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining their relative autonomy, necessary
for a person to become whole.
The symbols (archetypal images) of the individuation process mark its stages like milestones.
The process begins with becoming conscious of the Persona, the mask we take on in our every day life.
After this we become conscious of the Shadow, the repressed characteristics of the ego.
Then we become conscious of the Anima, the inner woman in each man, or the Animus, the inner man
in each woman.
Then the image of the Old Wise Man, or the old wise mother appears, after which the experience of the
Self happens.
These phases are not necessarily chronological in order or separated from each other.
Jungians warned that “every personification of the unconscious has both a light and a dark aspect....the
anima and animus have dual aspects: They can bring life-giving development and creativeness to the
personality, or they can cause petrification and physical death”.