archetypes

Archetypes are recurring symbols, motifs, or character types that appear across cultures and historical periods. In psychology and the humanities, they are often treated as timeless predispositions that shape human perception and storytelling. The concept is most associated with Carl Jung, who proposed that archetypes reside in the collective unconscious, a layer shared by all humans and containing ancestral experiences. Archetypes manifest in dreams, myths, religion, literature, and art, guiding expectations about characters and plots even when individuals are unaware of them.

In Jungian psychology, archetypes are not concrete people but templates that influence how experiences are interpreted; they interact with personal experiences and can be expressed differently across cultures and individuals.

Common archetypes include the hero, mentor, shadow, mother, child, trickster, anima and animus, sage, and caregiver. They recur in myths and stories, shaping quests, trials, and the emergence of order from chaos.

In modern usage, archetypes are applied in literary analysis, film studies, branding, and user experience design, helping creators anticipate audience recognition and emotional response. The hero's journey is one widely cited archetypal pattern.

Criticism notes that the theory risks overgeneralization and cultural bias, and empirical support is limited. Some scholars regard archetypes as emergent patterns rather than fixed entities, with emphasis on variation across cultures and historical periods.