The Universal Black Box
Quantum Self Discovery, Friday Edition, 4-min read.
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"The awareness of the unconsciousness of life is the most ancient imposition on the intelligence".
Fernando Pessoa
In traditional psychology it is understood that what complements the 'individual' is the 'social'.
For analytical psychology, however, what complements the individual is not the social but the collective.
It not only refers to the group of people who make up a society, but also emphasises what these people have in common.
The Psychic Dimension
According to Jung, just as the individual has a psychic dimension beyond consciousness (the unconscious), the collective, as belonging to a supra-personal dimension, also has its own unconscious.
Without going into the quantum level, unlike the individual unconscious, which is acquired through lived experience, the collective unconscious is a common platform made up of archetypes that shape our individuality.
In other words, according to Jung, there is a set of psychic experiences, imaginaries and symbols whose existence is not given by acquired learning, but are experiences that are shared by all human beings, regardless of our individual life histories.
Common Archetypes
Broadly speaking, it refers to a dimension beyond consciousness that is common to the experience of all human beings.
The collective unconscious as a second psychic system whose nature is universal and impersonal.
Just as the physical characteristics of an individual are more or less common to all individuals belonging to the human species, so the psyche has common characteristics that exist independently of the culture and history of societies.
"Until the unconscious becomes conscious, the unconscious will continue to direct your life and you will call it destiny".
Carl G. Jung
Jung believed that the collective unconscious underpins and surrounds the unconscious, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis.
He argued that the collective unconscious had a profound influence on the lives of individuals who lived their symbols and gave them meaning through their experiences.
Different Perspectives from the Same Source
The psychotherapeutic practice of analytic psychology revolves around exploring the patient's relationship with the collective unconscious.
Jungian psychiatrist and analyst Lionel Corbett argues that the contemporary terms "autonomous psyche" or "objective psyche" are more commonly used in the practice of depth psychology today than the traditional term "collective unconscious".
Ancestral Lineage
Personally after these historical notes we could relate considerably to the lineage and energetic memory in our fields.
Our ancestors have lived through all kinds of situations, for example war, so it would not be surprising that there is a mark and unconscious information in all of us that could be considered collective, as well as war, other traumatic events and important information for survival.
Questions and Answers
This insatiable search to make sense of all that we do not know, even that which seems familiar.
Why we are attracted to one thing and not another, preferences, tastes and ways of thinking are like a salad seasoned by millions of people.
Discovering that spice and knowing that it is good for this or that thing creates an experience and information that reinforces the previous one, you just didn't know it consciously, but the information was already in you.
These collective thought forms can trigger egregores, but I believe that not holding on to a thought pattern and seeing it as an active observer gives you the ability to experience it and question it at the same time, gaining freedom of choice, comfort in discomfort.
Understanding where we come from is quite complex, but really we ourselves are the question and the answer to everything.
Thank you for reading Quantum Self Discovery. I hope you found it valuable.
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Take care,
PoppyBloom.M