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A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Let's start out by taking a quick look at two pictorial models of time/space reality and the human psyche as viewed through the eyes of the traditional, "orthodox" behaviorist theory of personality.

The first model is a theory that claims we're born into this world as "clean slates." It's a theory which claims all human behaviors are "programmed" into us by our particular environment (or more recently by some cognitive behaviorist "rebels" - some behaviors are thought to be influenced by genetics.)

The second model is based on Carl Jung's vision of the human psyche and the "unconscious." Jung hypothesized that our minds at birth contain "inherent predispositions" to perceive in categories. (In other words, we're not born as "clean slates.") Jung called these "inherent predispositions" to perceive in categories: archetypes... "deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity... a kind of readiness to reproduce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas..."

Common Model - According to this view, the rectangle is the time/space box we're all (supposedly) locked up tight in. And the triangle inside this time/space box represents the sum total of the human psyche. Everything outside the box is the "unknown void." The "unknown void" has no direct effect on the human psyche, since the human psyche is conveniently wrapped up quite neatly (and safely) in the box of time/space reality. Accordingly, then regardless of what this "unknown void" might or (might not) contain - it's not considered pertinent to human development or growth.

Jung's Model - On the right side is the box of time/space reality. Everywhere else is the "collective unconscious." The split square in the middle represents the human psyche. Half of the psyche resides in the box of time/space reality - and half the psyche resides in the unconscious. Archetypes generally prefer hanging around outside of the time/space Box, and so they effect us from the vast "unconscious." Using this model of the human psyche, the archetypes (and their influence on the human psyche) are obviously quite profound in human development.

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