Most people know the concept of symbolism. Images are rarely literal, especially if they are in dreams. However the type of image and how they are interpreted help people make sense of the world. This is especially the case of Jungian or Jung symbols and the fact they transcend cultures.
Jung believed in the theory of the collective unconscious. What this means is that from birth people from pretty much any culture have certain concepts that anyone could understand. You may not be able to speak the same language or may have different characters but essentially everyone will know what those symbols mean.
What Jung noticed is that a lot of people seemed to see the same kind of images recur over and over. For example in most cultures fear can be personified in the form of a scarecrow and a lot of cultures recognise the fox as a symbol of cunning. It is these symbols that help people make sense of the world.
This is why even though a lot of folk or fairy tales may have different characters or be written different languages they often follow a certain structure. At the centre of the story is a hero and this hero is often a representation of the self. Other archetypes such as the wise mentor, the corrupting trickster and so forth symbolise the path people go on.
Freud was also interested in symbolism. However his theory mainly centred on the idea that these represented repressed memories and desires. Often these desires were dark and had to be confronted in order to keep people away from carrying out these darker desires. However this was not how Jung interpreted it.
While Jung did acknowledge that these symbols often represented repressed desires he felt they may not necessarily be bad things. He felt that this was more to do with having a psyche balanced by both male and female aspects and that this interpretation was not necessarily purely about sex or indulgence.
Another aspect of this is the anima or animus. The anima represents the male perspective on women as well as any female tendencies in a man. With the animus this is reversed and is about what a woman expects from a man as well as any male characteristics that they may have. Often these expectations are what shape how we interpret the characters in stories or the images in our dreams and this will affect how we gain meaning from the world around us, whether we are aware of it or not.
There are a wide array of symbols and archetypes. You can find a list of them online. They are useful for interpreting dreams or as an additional frame of reference while watching a television show or film, providing a deeper interpretation of what on the surface may seem superficial. And ultimately that would be the core aspect of the Jungian perspective. In effect Jung argued that there was more to our symbols than meets the eye!
Jung believed in the theory of the collective unconscious. What this means is that from birth people from pretty much any culture have certain concepts that anyone could understand. You may not be able to speak the same language or may have different characters but essentially everyone will know what those symbols mean.
What Jung noticed is that a lot of people seemed to see the same kind of images recur over and over. For example in most cultures fear can be personified in the form of a scarecrow and a lot of cultures recognise the fox as a symbol of cunning. It is these symbols that help people make sense of the world.
This is why even though a lot of folk or fairy tales may have different characters or be written different languages they often follow a certain structure. At the centre of the story is a hero and this hero is often a representation of the self. Other archetypes such as the wise mentor, the corrupting trickster and so forth symbolise the path people go on.
Freud was also interested in symbolism. However his theory mainly centred on the idea that these represented repressed memories and desires. Often these desires were dark and had to be confronted in order to keep people away from carrying out these darker desires. However this was not how Jung interpreted it.
While Jung did acknowledge that these symbols often represented repressed desires he felt they may not necessarily be bad things. He felt that this was more to do with having a psyche balanced by both male and female aspects and that this interpretation was not necessarily purely about sex or indulgence.
Another aspect of this is the anima or animus. The anima represents the male perspective on women as well as any female tendencies in a man. With the animus this is reversed and is about what a woman expects from a man as well as any male characteristics that they may have. Often these expectations are what shape how we interpret the characters in stories or the images in our dreams and this will affect how we gain meaning from the world around us, whether we are aware of it or not.
There are a wide array of symbols and archetypes. You can find a list of them online. They are useful for interpreting dreams or as an additional frame of reference while watching a television show or film, providing a deeper interpretation of what on the surface may seem superficial. And ultimately that would be the core aspect of the Jungian perspective. In effect Jung argued that there was more to our symbols than meets the eye!
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