Affective Neuroscience: Implications for the Jungian Self and Archetypes

Archetypes are central to Jung’s model of the mind and his concept of the Self. He observed that patients with psychosis demonstrated cultural content in their hallucinations and delusions that were not learned, leading him to define archetypes as impersonal unconscious patterns. Although Jung’s description of archetypes evolved over time, the core idea of inherited, universal patterns in psychological and cultural phenomena has remained consistent. The paper aims to provide an overview of affective neuroscience and Panksepp’s brain hierarchy model, to summarize contemporary archetypal thinking and to explore what Panksepp’s affective neuroscience can add to our understanding of archetypes. We end with examples of how this novel combination of theories can play out in the therapy room and in our day‐to‐day lives.