Memories, fantasies, archetypes: an exploration of some connections between cognitive science and analytical psychology

Abstract

The value of cognitive science as a means of investigating psychodynamic theory and practice is discussed and the limitations of this approach are described. Research findings from cognitive science are drawn on to clarify the nature of memory, which is seen to be a mixture of reproduction and reconstruction and the concepts of true and false memory are explored in this light. The part played by implicit memory and internal working models in producing transference is also examined. New ways of conceptualizing fantasy, which describes it as another facet of internal working models, and the role of transgenerational transmission of attachment patterns in creating internal working models are explored. The nature of archetypes is considered in the light of cognitive science research and a minimalist model is proposed, in which they can be likened to image schemas, that is, primitive conceptual structures that exist in a form which can never be experienced directly or indirectly.

Dissociation, Chaos and Transcendent Function

“…These findings suggest that personality may be conceptualized as a non-linear self-organized dynamic system with archetypes as pre-existing principles of organization that within the personality manifest as a psychological complex with impersonal characteristics mediated through myths and rituals or through consciousness (McDowell, 2001;Saunders & Scar, 2001). These connections suggest possible relationships between cognitive neuroscience and psychodynamic theory of archetypes as primitive conceptual structures (Knox, 2001;von Franz, 1974).…”

Meaningful Mutations: Reflections on the Synchronicity of Evolution

“…Other scholars who have made connections between the concept of the archetype and more recent scientific ideas and concepts areamongst others- Walters (1994), McDowell (2001), Knox (2002), MacLennan (2006), Merchant (2009), Haule (2010b), and Goodwyn (2010).…”

Enacting archetypes in movies: grounding the unconscious mind in emotion-driven media

“…Humans interpret the world with archetypes, though they are unaware of the existence of these archetypes. These theories have built a basic framework of the unconscious mind, and further became the theoretical basis of analytical psychology and Jungian psychotherapy (Roesler 2012;Knox 2001).…”