ABSTRACT
The idea of archetypes and archetypal forms is controversial and refers to several different though related ideas which are particularly associated with the psychology of CG Jung. The theory of archetypes stands in contrast to the tabula rasa idea that the human infant is born with a ‘blank slate’ of a mind on which future experience writes. The archetypes formed the contents of the collective unconscious as an inherited archive, and were often described by Jung in terms of folklore images of forms and figures like the hero, the chief, the great mother, the all-merciful, the magician, and the monster. If archetypal processes and phenomena are as fundamental to mind and consciousness as a large minority think, it is inherently likely that their source is multifactorial, arising from many genes and the outcome of many genetic-environmental interactions. Jean Knox’s critical arguments are important for the development of the archetypal concept.
