Archetype is a fashionable word, something like a pattern, a matrix. However, there is still no single definition in psychology. The concept of the archetype was introduced by Carl Jung, the second "father" of psychoanalysis, exploring the human subconscious. He noticed that the description of the patient's visions coincides with the images from the ancient manuscript (the patient of this text could not know). So, the same "pictures" that both the psycho-sick and the ancient magicians described, and which Jung called archetypes, somewhere exist? But where?
Archetype - a typical human image can be everyone. Jung introduced the scientific term "archetype", since these areas where basic human images "live" common to people of different epochs, religions and places of the globe could be explained either by recognizing the existence of God and the mystical forces serving as the source of archetypes for humanity , or call them the term "archetype of the unconscious" and provide a study of its "habitats" to descendants. Archetypes of the unconscious are very colorful and fully manifested in altered states of consciousness (hypnosis, trance, the state between sleep and reality, medication, alcohol, etc.).
These images are inherent in the human perception of the world, they are universal for the native and for the civilized person, they can only differ in particular. For example, in any nation you will find the concept of "evil power" (Satan, etc.), "creator" (God), "messenger" (angel, spirit, etc.), "servant", "mother" "" Teacher, "etc. And a person will easily list the typical features of the image archetype. Everyone has an internal image of the mother, and everyone will say that the mother cares, loves, protects, caresses, and teaches and punishes - little by little (even if her mother behaved differently - just another person, cruel or indifferent, the behavior of the mother will perceive as a violation norms, deviation from the same archetype).
What is the difference between an archetype and an understandable "type", "type"? The prefix "arch" means "above". That is, the archetype is even more "typical" type. On the totality of some signs (drinking, smoking, swearing, glass beats), we classify a person as a bully. A archetype is something more abstract than the type that stands higher at a symbolic level. By abstracting the type of bully, we come to the archetype of "evil, destruction, rebellion" down to the archetype of "Satan". Therefore, there are variants of the embodiment of the same archetype. For example, the archetype of a teacher: this is the image of an intellectually developed person who has comprehended certain: knowledge, which is not yet available to his students. The teacher willingly shares this knowledge, making certain demands on the student regarding his discipline and payment for his labor.
The teacher is basically the same, but his status is somewhat different, the gap between the teacher and the student is greater and, besides respect, the teacher causes servility and a willingness to obey his will. In fact, all people dream of the same love, strive for the same values, treat their children equally and are afraid of the same thing. This is - by and large, In particular - everything is very, very individual, depends on the culture and time of life, on the person's age.
Each archetype, as a manifestation of the unconscious, has a certain power and fascinating action. The archetype can bestow its energy, but it can also enslave. Suppose a person is close to the image of a teacher, then he will somehow deal with the archetype of the teacher all his life: he can become a good teacher himself: Throwing a bad, overwhelming teacher; become a false teacher; all my life I look for a teacher.
That is, it will not belong to itself, but will, like an enchanted one, chase after the realization of the archetype. The power of the archetype not only in its energy charge, but also in capturing - where the individual ends, and where the archetypal begins - is very difficult. We can not completely break away from archetypes, they are part of human life. Fusing with them, a person loses his individuality. The state of losing oneself in collective spaces is well illustrated by the psychology of the crowd. The crowd of fans is captured by one idea, one emotion, and this general emotion is so strong that it moves the individual, individual person aside for a while. So it is with archetypes. A person can identify himself so strongly with an archetype that he himself will not figure out where he is or where the archetype is. For example, when a brother kills a "spoiled" sister in the Chechens because she disgraced the family, he acts as a slave of the archetype "a worthy member of the tribe of the people," regardless of his personal feelings for her, because he can not go against this "kind people ".
A person can feel that he is very close to the archetype, say, a healer, and such a person can become a good doctor. But, if there is an obsession, then he will try to be a doctor and there, where you need to be sick, father, lover or conqueror.