CARL JUNG: The Mother Archetype

The Mother Archetype

Jung spent considerable time examining and explicating the role of the Mother archetype in the psychology of the unconscious, and there is a large, rich literature on this archetypal dominant both in his

Collected Works and in the works of his followers. In the brief essay that follows, Jung delineates some characteristic aspects of the Mother archetype as it often appears in mythology and religion. This essay also points up an often overlooked aspect of archetypes in general—their ambivilance; their potential to be both positive and negative, constructive and destructive

LIKE ANY OTHER ARCHETYPE, the mother archetype appears under an almost infinite variety of aspects. I mention here only some of the more characteristic. First in importance are the personal mother and grandmother, stepmother and mother-in-law; then any woman with whom a relationship exists—for example, a nurse or governess or perhaps a remote ancestress.

Then there are what might be termed mothers in a figurative sense. To this category belongs the goddess, and especially the Mother of God, the Virgin, and Sophia. Mythology offers many variations of the mother archetype, as for instance the mother who reappears as the maiden in the myth of Demeter and Kore; or the mother who isalso the beloved, as in the Cybele-Attis myth.

Other symbols of the mother in a figurative sense appear in things representing the goal of our longing for redemption, such as Paradise... Read the full essay on Scribd here

DIALOGUE

CARL JUNG: The Mother Archetype

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