Jung’s Concept of Archetypes

By Ryan Smith and Sigurd Arild

The current state of Jungian typology is such that Jungian concepts that do not directly relate to type are sometimes thrown around to spice up people’s experience and presentation of typology. In particular, Jung’s idea of archetypes is often mentioned in order to complement people’s understanding of type. However, the general understanding of these lines of thought appears to be poor and/or wrong.

For example, Jungian functions are sometimes referred to as archetypes, just as four-letter type codes are sometimes referred to as archetypes. These are both erroneous views. ...