48 Chapter 2 Theories of Personality
An archetype can be an image, such as the
“magic circle,” called a mandala in Eastern reli-
gions, which Jung thought symbolizes the unity
of life and “the totality of the self.” Or it can
be a figure found in fairy tales, legends, and
popular stories, such as the Hero, the nurturing
Earth Mother, the Strong Father, or the Wicked
Witch. It can even be an aspect of the self; the
shadow archetype reflects the prehistoric fear of
wild animals and represents the bestial, evil side of
human nature. Some archetypes, such as the Hero,
Villain, and Earth Mother, do appear in the stories
and images of virtually every society (Campbell,
1949/1968; Neher, 1996). Jungians would consider
the Joker, Darth Vader, Dracula, the Dark Lord
Sauron, and Harry Potter’s tormentor Voldemort
as expressions of the shadow archetype.
Although Jung shared with Freud a fascina-
tion with the darker aspects of the personality,
he had more confidence in the positive, forward-
moving strengths of the ego than Freud did. He
believed that people are motivated not only by past
conflicts but also by their future goals and their
desire to fulfill themselves. Jung was also among
the first to identify extroversion–introversion as a
basic dimension of personality. Nonetheless, many
of Jung’s ideas were more suited to mysticism and
philosophy than to empirical psychology, which
may be why so many Jungian ideas later became
popular with New Age movements.The Object-Relations School. Freud essen-
tially regarded babies as if they were independent,
greedy little organisms ruled by their own instinc-
tive desires; other people were relevant only insofar
as they gratified the infant’s drives or blocked them.
But by the 1950s, increased awareness of the impor-
tance of human attachments led to a different view
of infancy, put forward by the object-relations school,object-relations
school A psychodynamic
approach that empha-
sizes the importance of
the first two years of life
and an infant’s formative
relationships, especially
with the mother.
which was developed in Great Britain by Melanie
Klein, D. W. Winnicott, and others. To object-
relations theorists, the central problem in life is to
find a balance between the need for independence
and the need for others. This balance requires con-
stant adjustment to separations and losses: small
ones that occur during quarrels, moderate ones
such as leaving home for the first time, and major
ones such as divorce or death. The way we react
to these separations, according to object-relations
analysts, is largely determined by our experiences in
the first year or two of life.
The reason for the clunky word object in
object-relations, instead of the warmer word
human or parent, is that the infant’s attachment
is not only to a real person (usually the mother)
but also to the infant’s evolving perception of
her. The child creates a mental representationIn the Jungian view, Lord Voldemort is a modern archetype of evil, fighting the wise and kindly Hero archetype, Dumbledore.
According to object-relations theory, a baby constructs
unconscious representations of his or her parents
that will influence the child’s relations with others
throughout life.