Inevitably, in attempting to open up such a wide and complex field to scientific study, this book uses a good many ‘technical terms’. This is a brief guide to the more significant of those referred to in the text. Some are adapted from Jungian psychology, others are new.
Archetypes: Jung’s term to identify the structures programmed into the unconscious levels of our psyche, related to our core instincts, and which shape much of our response to the world.
The main archetypal complexes centre round the key roles played by human beings in the ‘archetypal family drama’ (see below) – Father, Mother, Son/Hero, Daughter/Heroine and Child. Stories are centred round these archetypes, along with those representing the ego and ‘the Self’ (see below).
The patterns shaping stories, as this book shows, are themselves archetypal.
Archetypal Family Drama: term used in this book to describe the process, central to storytelling and to human life, whereby each generation grows up to succeed to that which came before. Each person begins life as a child, created by the pairing off of a father and mother. A central preoccupation of stories is the process whereby their hero or heroine learns to pair off with their right ‘other half’, thus continuing the chain of life.
The ego/Self split: the key to why evolution has given human beings the capacity to imagine stories. This stems from the division in our psyche, unique in the animal kingdom, between the ego and ‘the Self’ – and the need to reconnect the two.
Ego: the centre of our consciousness, that part of our psyche through which we perceive the world and our own part in it. Due to the ‘ego/Self split’, human beings, unlike other animals, can think and act egocentrically.
Self: term used by Jung and others to identify that deeper centre of the human personality which connects us with our selfless core instincts. It is the Self which links us with the totality of life outside the demands of the ego. The underlying purpose of our ability to imagine stories is to show how the two can be re-integrated.
Dark and Light: the means whereby stories distinguish whether a character is centred on the ego or the Self.
‘Dark figures’ in stories (exemplified most obviously in the ‘monster’) are egocentric, heartless and in some way blind to the reality of the world around them. This symbolises the power of the ego to distort perception and limit understanding.
The ‘light’ in stories symbolises the power connecting a character to the Self.
All the archetypal figures have both ‘light’ and ‘dark’ aspects.
Fantasy: make-believe or wishful thinking originating from the ego, essentially different in character from imagination.
Fantasy cycle: the five-stage pattern which shapes the attempt to live out an ego-based fantasy when pressed to its conclusion (Anticipation – Dream Stage – Frustration – Nightmare Stage – Destruction). The basis of Tragedy.
Nyktomorph: literally a ‘night shape’. Term used to describe the way in which fantasy feeds on incomplete images, which exercise their suggestive power over the mind from the fact that it lacks enough information fully to resolve them. This is helpful to understanding the psychological mechanism behind the appeal of fantasy-based storytelling, e.g. horror stories, pornography.
Masculine and Feminine: terms used in this book in a specific sense, unconnected to whether someone is outwardly male or female. A man or a woman can display both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ attributes (or the lack of them).
The ‘masculine values’ relate to power or strength, and to the ordering or ‘rational’ function of the human mind. These can most naturally become allied to ego-consciousness.
The ‘feminine values’, rooted in the Self, represent selfless or sympathetic feeling and intuitive understanding, the ability to ‘see whole’.
Anima: Jung’s term to define the feminine component in a man’s psyche which shapes his response to the opposite sex and his relationship to the ‘feminine values’. Anima-figures personifying the feminine value (such as the heroine or a ‘Princess’) play a central part in storytelling.
Animus: the corresponding masculine component in a woman’s psyche. This similarly determines her relationship to the male sex and to the ‘masculine values’. In stories where the central figure is a heroine, the animus is personified by the hero (or a ‘Prince’).
Dark Masculine: this represents the masculine values of power and order when they are cut off from the connecting feminine and centred on the ego.
Dark Feminine: this represents the feminine when it is taken over by the ego. Behind an outward show of ‘feminine’ attributes, it becomes driven by the dark masculine.
‘Unrealised value’: term used to describe the way in which ‘dark figures’ in stories (e.g. ‘Dark Father’, ‘Dark Mother’, ‘Dark Alter-ego’, ‘Dark Other Half’) represent the negative version of those qualities which the hero or heroine must make positive in themselves to achieve maturity and thus to reach a ‘happy ending’.
Shadow: Jung’s term to describe the negative elements called into play when psychic development becomes unbalanced and ‘one-sided’. The ‘shadow’ includes all those elements of which ego-consciousness is not aware. This may result in ‘projection of the shadow’ onto others (see below). When people are caught out by these limitations on their awareness they ‘fall into their shadow’ (see Tragedy).
Projection: the ability of the psyche to ‘project’ onto the external world those archetypal elements which should be internal. E.g. we talk of ‘anima projection’ when someone falls foolishly in love; or ‘shadow projection’ when people display irrational antagonism to those who embody their own failings (‘mote and beam syndrome’).
Ego/Self confusion: describes the unconscious process whereby the urge to totality represented by the Self can be hijacked by the ego (individually or collectively). This leads to ‘ego inflation’, as the ego then claims the moral superiority of acting in some higher, selfless cause. Invaluable to understanding a wide range of social and political phenomena, from puritanical self-righteousness in religion to Marxism, from the more extreme forms of environmentalism to political correctness.
Sentimentality: another expression of ‘ego/Self confusion’, where the ego enjoys a make-believe version of non-egocentric qualities associated with the Self. It takes on their outward form, but separated from their inner reality. As Hollywood long since discovered, any loving emotion can be sentimentally appropriated in this way, such as love between man and woman, between parents and children, love of country, nature or God. Helpful in understanding the appeal of all types of fantasy-based storytelling and art.
Inferior: the positive elements needed to make up a deficiency caused by psychological one-sidedness may often appear in some ‘inferior’ (i.e. undeveloped, weak or distorted) form. They thus point up that which needs to be consciously developed for integration to be achieved (e.g. the role played by ‘helpful animals’ in folk tales).
Above the Line/Below The Line: centrally important feature of storytelling which shows the ‘little world’ of a story divided onto two levels. In archetypal terms, this division represents the psychic split created by ego-consciousness.
‘Above the line’ we see initially dominant ‘dark’ characters whose egocentricity throws into shadow ‘below the line’ those characters who represent the ‘light’. The archetypal structure of stories shows these ‘light’ elements finally emerging from the shadows, to eliminate the distortions of egocentricity and thus to integrate the two levels.
Ruling Consciousness: the state of collective ego-consciousness which characterises every social group, establishing its prevailing attitudes and values. Since ego-consciousness is by definition ‘one-sided’, this invariably casts a shadow which (a) it projects onto other groups, and (b) obscures those members of the group ‘below the line’ who represent values missing from its ruling mindset.
‘Change of Heart’: centrally important motif in stories, showing the process whereby a ‘dark’ character may switch to the side of ‘light’. This invariably involves a radical shift in both feeling and awareness. The heart is opened to selfless feeling, and the eyes to objective understanding or ‘seeing whole’.
Thrilling Escape From Death: one of the commonest devices used in a story (particularly at its climax), to show the hero or heroine miraculously escaping from the clutches of the ‘dark power’.
The Archetypal Happy Ending: for a story to reach a completely ‘happy ending’ the masculine and feminine values must be brought into perfect balance. This is supremely symbolised by the image of a man and a woman being brought together in loving union, representing integration with the Self.