The two-sided archetype of meaning or Sinn seems an unlikely benefactor. After all, is not what this archetype represents something that should best be provided by consciousness itself, particularly in the conscious use of the ‘rational’ psychological functions?
In the midst of our chaotic life processes, as we experience them day by day, there is a pre-existent, hidden meaning. That meaning, or Sinn, is an archetype.
According to Jung, the archetypes of the collective unconscious are psychological patterns. An archetype thus represents how we (human beings) typically live through and experience certain situations. What kind of situations?
In a land far beyond the mountains, there once lived a man. He was deeply sad, for his beloved wife had died and left him alone to an existence without happiness and nothing to look forward to. With her the man had shared everything, and now the food had no taste, sleep did not refresh, and even when he had a good week and was able sell some goods at the marketplace, he just came home with the...
It is well known that Jung felt some special affinity with the mediaeval world in general, and with alchemy in particular. He saw connections there with the core of the psychology of the individuum.
People are complex: every human being has a dark side — a demonic aspect — in addition to the more acceptable mask they display towards their social surroundings.
Jung’s essay on synchronicities is centered around the notion of causality: he points out certain phenomena that (according to him) cannot be causally explained, and in general he claims that the law of causality is insufficient as a principle for scientific explanation. What does he actually mean by terms such as ‘causal’ and 'causality'?
The notion of projection is a broad umbrella which covers a variety of different ways in which unconscious contents might appear, to a subject, as something they notice in the external world. Presumably, some archetypal structures are best expressed in personified form, whereas others lend themselves to a different, more abstract representation: as relationships, as connections.
A man stood in the middle of the street, unmoving, frozen in place. As people hurried past without looking, it almost felt as if he wasn’t even there, had there not been a small dent in the crowd where they steered around him.
Jung says that synchronistic phenomena appear when an archetype of the collective unconscious is triggered (or ‘constellated’). He also points out that this usually goes along with projections. Interestingly, the mirror theory of eros arrives at a similar result.
Leif Frenzel is a writer and independent researcher. He has a background in philosophy, literature, music, and information technology. His recent interest is Jungian psychology, especially synchronicities and the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious.