The Wise Old Man Archetype

To understand a specific archetype, one must first understand what a Jungian archetype is. The two questions that are the most important to understand are the what and the where. What is an archetype and where do archetypes come from. First for the what, Jung believed that all humans possess a "preconscious psychic disposition that enables a (man) to react in a human manner." These prospectives for creation are defined when they enter the conscious mind as images. The archetype may emerge in the mind in many ways and forms. An archetype can also be defined as a mythic structure, coming down from myth and inserting itself into literature. The archetype only exists if the situation calls for it, and we are not conscience of it until it has already happened. According to The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends,

Jung's hypothesis was that direct influence was unnecessary, that the similar mythologies were merely differing manifestations of structures deep in the human unconscious. These structures Jung termed archetypes; they manifest themselves not only in myth and in dreams but in the finished art of cultures like our own in the form of symbols. (504-505)

Now, for the next question, where do archetypes come from? Jung believed that human beings were born with these models which makeup our imagination and make it categorically human. Jung believed that these archetypes were derived from the collective unconscious through which, "the spirit of the whole human species manifests itself" (Richter 504). Richter goes on to say that we "understand it's existence through our profound response to universal symbols that appear both in dreams and in our waking lives." (504).

Also important in defining a single a...

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