Concept

Archetype

Overview

The concept of an archetype ( AR-ki-type) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis.

An archetype can be any of the following:

a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy, emulate, or "merge" into. Informal synonyms frequently used for this definition include "standard example", "basic example", and the longer-form "archetypal example"; mathematical archetypes often appear as "canonical examples".

the Jungian psychology concept of an inherited unconscious predisposition, behavioral trait or tendency ("instinct") shared among the members of the species; as any behavioral trait the tendency comes to being by way of patterns of thought, images, affects or pulsions characterized by its qualitative likeness to distinct narrative constructs; unlike personality traits, many of the archetype's fundamental characteristics are shared in common with the collective and are not predominantly defined by the individual's representation of them; and the tendency to utilize archetypal representations is postulated to arise from the evolutionary drive to establish specific cues corresponding with the historical evolutionary environment to better adapt to it. Such evolutionary drives are: survival and thriving in the physical environment, the relating function, acquiring knowledge, etc. It is communicated graphically as archetypal "figures".

a constantly-recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology. This definition refers to the recurrence of characters or ideas sharing similar traits throughout various, seemingly unrelated cases in classic storytelling, media, etc. This usage of the term draws from both comparative anthropology and from Jungian archetypal theory.

Archetypes are also very close analogies to instincts, in that, long before any consciousness develops, it is the impersonal and inherited traits of human beings that present and motivate human behavior. They also continue to influence feelings and behavior even after some degree of consciousness developed later on.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

1. First, by REAL IDEAS, I mean such as have a foundation in nature; such as have a conformity with the real being and existence of things, or with their archetypes. FANTASTICAL or CHIMERICAL, I call such as have no foundation in nature, nor have any conformity with that reality of being to which they are tacitly referred, as to their archetypes. If we examine the several sorts of ideas before mentioned, we shall find…

   John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1

   Names Archetype several times; the author is tied to Archetype in the knowledge graph.

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2. There is no progression from a lower to a higher type, but merely a more or less complete evolution of one type." Huxley seems to use the term anamorphism in a sense differing from that of some writers. Thus in Jourdan's "Dictionnaire des Termes Usites dans les Sciences Naturelles," 1834, it is defined as the production of an atypical form either by arrest or excess of development.), I should have thought that the…

   Charles Darwin, More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1

   States what Archetype is; names Archetype several times.

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3. Sub-Class--CIRRIPEDIA. _Crustacea attached by the anterior end of the head, by cement proceeding from a modified portion of the ovaria; archetype composed of seventeen segments, with the three first of large size, and almost always developed into a carapace, not wholly exuviated, and capable of various movements; antennæ none; eyes rudimentary; mouth prominent, formed by the partial confluence of the labrum, palpi…

   Charles Darwin, A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia

   Opens on Archetype; names Archetype.

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Philosophers who discussed Archetype

• Heraclitus
• Rudolph Goclenius

Related ideas

• Jungian archetypes
• Greek language
• Philosophy
• Hero
• John Locke
• Latin
• Culture
• Psychology
• Theory of forms
• Switzerland
• Saint
• Instinct
• Noun
• Symbol
• Carl Jung
• Behavior
• Martyr
• The Economist
• Literary criticism
• Tragedy
• Evolution
• Prototype
• Comedy

Place in the tradition

Part of Heraclitus.

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