Carl Jung’s most popular system of archetypes is well known, I think, but here’s a short summary anyway of the ones that he most frequently mentioned:
- The Father (or Wise Old Man) – an authority figure that represents guidance and discipline yet resists any challenges/developments proposed by any student.
- The Mother (or Maiden) – represents a nurturing impulse that provides wisdom on a more instinctive basis and is thus seen as purer and more innocent.
- The Child (or Hero) – as a result of the Father and Mother, the heroic ego that longs for development but also perhaps the security of a definite conclusion.
- The Shadow (or Trickster) – a personal representation of one’s unconscious that is repressed based on the expectations of the three archetypes mentioned above. The Shadow can be considered the ‘evil’ hidden part of the quaternity of the Father, Mother and Child.
- The Anima/Animus – the expectation of woman/man in a man/woman and accordingly the range of possibilities that the opposite sex can present. It acts as a guide on this route.
- The Child – one who accepts the values of the adults around them. She calls this the attitude of "seriousness," in which the child "escapes the anguish of freedom" by thinking of values as existing objectively, outside oneself, rather than as an expression of one’s freedom.
- The Sub-Man – one who, after childhood, avoids questions of freedom and accepts oneself as unfree.
- The Serious Man – one who "gets rid of his freedom by claiming to subordinate it to values which would be unconditioned,” e.g. absolute political causes. Basically a reversion to the Child’s seriousness.
- The Nihilist – one who, having failed at life, decides not to try anything at all. "Conscious of being unable to be anything, man then decides to be nothing... Nihilism is disappointed seriousness which has turned back upon itself."
- The Adventurer – one who engages vigorously in various life projects, but without caring for the goal. The Adventurer "does not attach himself to the end at which he aims; only to his conquest. He likes action for its own sake." In doing so he tramples on others in the process: "The adventurer shares the nihilist’s contempt for men." Perhaps someone like this can be summed up as a hedonist.
- The Passionate Man – one who cares enthusiastically about one’s goal, but shares a similar contempt for others: "Not intending his freedom for men, the passionate man does not recognize them as freedoms either. He will not hesitate to treat them as things." Perhaps views like this can be summed up as following the mentality of the ends justifying the means.
- Genuine Freedom – one who takes the excitement of the Adventurer and the passion of the Passionate Man and includes with them a concern for other people and other freedoms, as well. "Passion is converted to genuine freedom only if one destines his existence to other existences… To will oneself free is also to will others free.”