Complex / Archetype / Symbol in the Psychology of C.G Jung

As an associate of C. G. Jung for many years, Jolande Jacobi is in a unique position to provide an interpretation of his work.  In this volume, Dr. Jacobi presents a study of three central, interrelated concepts in analytical psychology: the individual complex, the universal archetype, and the dynamic symbol.

Complex: According to Jung, complexes, not dreams, provide the road to the unconscious, and he assigns a dominant role to these “feeling-toned groups of representations.”  The difficulty the neurotic person has in resolving his complexes is due to his fear of confronting his inward and outward reality.  He chooses therefore to think life rather than experience it, clinging to his complexes even when he suffers unbearably from them.

Archetype: The archetypes, which are the contents of the collective unconscious, have a decisive effect on all psychic experience.  In a sense, they are the magnetic fields, the energy centers, underlying the transformation of the psychic processes into images.

Symbol: It is the symbol, an archetype made perceptible to the conscious mind, that gives meaning and effect to man’s striving for self-knowledge and self-realization.  Dr. Jacobi compares its role and definition in the theories of Jung and those of Freud.  In a final section she analyzes a child’s dream in which both the archetype and the symbol demonstrate their roles in the unconscious.