Anchoring with Archetypes

Archetypes

The modern popularity of using archetypes and myths to understand personality was helped enormously at the beginning of the twentieth century by the work of the psychoanalyst C.J. Jung and, to a lesser extent, his mentor Sigmund Freud. More recently, in the early 1990s, the writing of Jungian psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes was instrumental in taking the concept to the general public. Her hugely successful book Women Who Run with the Wolves explored the wild woman archetype through myth and story. Her storytelling and poetry are ideal for transmitting her knowledge to a broad audience. Further, Pinkola Estes’ work has made psychoanalysis accessible even to those who don’t have the luxury of sitting in a therapist’s chair.

Many people have difficulty expressing certain aspects of their identity. It is possible to find ways to bring hidden qualities to light by anchoring to a mythic character. Using archetypes as an anchor can help bring healing to parts of the personality that are damaged or suppressed. Looking closely at archetypes can give you new ideas, insight, or a new way of looking at something. You may find it easier to experience a feeling of acceptance if you can identify strongly with a character. Their flaws can help you to better understand and tolerate your own. Above all else, connecting with a character helps you feel less alone in the world, and sometimes we need the company for a while.

The Blog

The search for meaning, what is meaningful, and what things mean has taken up a good chunk of my life. During the late 1990s, I underwent Gestalt therapy over the course of three years, and my therapist introduced me to the writing of Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I still follow her work and recently reacquainted myself with her audiobooks.

I am not a Jungian, although I did connect with the work of another of Freud’s students. Otto Rank was a lesser-known psychoanalyst who examined myth, creativity, and art. He influenced three other writers I greatly admire. Rollo May was a well-known American existential psychologist who wrote extensively about the difficulties of living a life of one’s own. The second writer is R.D Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist whose primary concern was the origin of mental illness. And finally, the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. His leading theory explained how death anxiety influenced behaviour and attitudes. The many questions each of these men asked have strongly influenced my perspective and how I look at something.

My version of analysis used in this blog combines all I’ve studied formally and informally over the last thirty years. It is a perspective that is unique to me and one that is hopefully useful to you. However, I am an analyst, not a storyteller. This blog will look at the analysis of characters from books and films, but I generally won’t be writing a synopsis of the story. I’ll only include fragments of the part I am discussing. The exception here is fairytales with an online written version that I can copy and paste. It is always too much work to analyse every single object or aspect of a story or character. You would be looking at hundreds of pages for a single story. And anyway, we don’t need to look at every blade of grass to appreciate the lawn. Nor do we need to know exactly how many trees are before us when looking at the forest. The work here should give you an idea of how to do it yourself.

Academically, I continue to study history and the classics. It is entirely possible I may write about some of the significant-to-me figures of Greek and Roman myth in the upcoming months. Although, I’ve kinda got my heart set on looking at Batman and other superheroes. Maybe even a few villains. . . I shall see where the wind blows me.