Developing an Archetypal Cast

Recently I have been revisiting some of the concepts developed in my PhD thesis 10 years ago. The text which follows is an extract from an unfinished article I wrote which describes the process I developed, drawn from Carl Jung, to develop archetypal characters. This was a core component of my PhD thesis and formed a key part of the toolkit I developed for handling change. 

In the last few weeks I have been sketching out some initial ideas for developing a workshop or online course to help with developing an archetypal cast. Is this something you would find useful? If so, please comment below or contact me and I will share more with you. 

[This is a much longer post (859 words) and less conversational than my usual style. It will probably take you about 10 minutes to read. I hope you enjoy it. Normal service resumes after this post :)]

In Jung’s ‘Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious’ (1959) he makes extensive use of visual techniques to develop his approach to the use of archetypes. In one section, a series of mandala pictures are used to illustrate the psychotherapeutic journey travelled by one of his patients. Jung offers his own interpretations of the material which is generated. The art work which he reproduces is of significant interest in its own right. The quality of art work is very high. However, the interesting perspective here is the extent to which the material used demonstrates Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and indicates the use of universal archetypes.

It is known that Jung used visual techniques such as the painting of mandala images in his own approach to self-analysis. There are references to the material generated in his memoirs. He refers to ‘The Red Book’ where he recounted fantasies which developed from his dreams and describes how these were transcribed into ‘The Red Book’ and illustrated with material including mandalas.

Thus, I became interested in the scope for visual material to reveal further information which might not otherwise be easy to identify. I developed a number of approaches to generating material. Some of these approaches built on exercises which I had come across on personal development training courses.

For example, I had carried out an exercise which involved describing the life journey in visual terms. Words were not allowed on the page, but the images used needed to describe the participants key life events. This was done in the context of career, but could equally be used for other contexts. The participant was then asked to share their picture with one other person, describing what it depicted and looking for illumination in terms of future directions.

I wanted to develop a model which related directly to the case study approach which I was using. The exercise I have described would work well, but I also wanted to sample other approaches.

In his memoirs, Jung reflects on his own use of artistic creations. He has been using mandalas and descriptions of developments of fantasies as they have emerged from his dreams. He says,

 “Obviously what I was doing wasn’t science. What then could it be but art? It was as though these were the only alternatives in the world.”

(Jung, 1963b, p.210)

This observation comes about through a dialogue with the female character developed through the fantasy work. Jung established that this character was his soul or anima (anima exists within man, animus within woman). He determined that this ‘voice’ was the means by which he could identify and interpret images which were keys to the content of the unconscious. There is no ‘scientific’ method to achieve this. The identification of images is, according to Jung, an effective way to explore the contents and imagoes of the unconscious. Thus, exercises which develop visual images will be a useful way to explore this further.

The next step in the methods to be deployed was to follow through the approach described by Jung whereby he begins to evolve archetypal characters for dialogue. Jung describes how he spent years searching for a mentor to provide support. He was, of course, writing in times well before the notion of clinical supervision. This is also within a context where he had split from his teacher Freud, in a difficult rift which caused him much emotional anxiety (and possibly a form of breakdown).

Jung reflects that his searching came to nothing, and ironically that he found the character he was looking for within himself in the form of Philemon.

In developing my own archetypal cast, I have used various techniques including creative visualisation, poetry, painting and fiction writing. This work led to the development of four archetypal characters within my cast. They are: Alice, who is the anima; Peter, who is the puer aeternus; Aslan, the Wise Old Man; and Lou Meera, the Trickster. These characters form the basis for the operation of the Archetypal Casting Toolkit. They become the dialogical vehicle for interpretation.

Through a series of exercises in a workshop context, it is possible to develop an archetypal cast for each individual, which helps to give a range of perspectives on a specific change situation, problem or scenario.