Abstract

Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious is grounded in the concept of archetype, which he derived from Neoplatonic philosophy. This term has penetrated into subsequent psychological and culturological concepts, becoming popular nowadays in the context of research on culture due to its connection with the symbol, myth, image. Most researchers of Jung’s work forget that this concept appeared in his texts relatively late, and at that time the psychiatrist had already been developing his thought for almost twenty years. He created the concept of the collective unconscious and its main assumptions without this seemingly key concept. Others were used instead, i.e. the primary image, pre-image, imago, psychic dominant. The aim of the article is to show the differences in meaning between the term archetype and earlier concepts, to explain its relationship with the image, and to indicate the philosophical and anthropological grounds on which Jung based his psychoanalytic thought.