Archetype: A Natural History of the Self, first published in 1982, was
a ground-breaking book; the first to explore the connections between
Jung's archetypes and evolutionary disciplines such as ethology and
sociobiology, and an excellent introduction to the archetypes in theory
and practical application as well.
C.G. Jung's 'archetypes of the collective unconscious' have
traditionally remained the property of analytical psychology, and have
commonly been dismissed as 'mystical' by scientists. But Jung himself
described them as biological entities, which, if they exist at all, must
be amenable to empirical study. In the work of Bowlby and Lorenz, and in
studies of the bilateral brain, Anthony Stevens has discovered the key
to opening up this long-ignored scientific approach to the archetypes,
originally envisaged by Jung. At last, in a creative leap made possible
by the cross-fertilisation of several specialist disciplines, psychiatry
can be integrated with psychology, with ethology and biology. The result
is an immensely enriched science of human behaviour.
In Archetype Revisited, Stevens considers the enormous cultural,
social and intellectual changes that have taken place since the
publication of the original edition, and includes:
- An updated chapter on The Archetypal Masculine and Feminine,
reflecting recent research findings and developments in feminist
thinking;
- Commentary on the intrusion of neo-Darwinian thinking into psychology
and psychiatry;
- Analysis of what has happened to the archetype in terms of our
understanding of it and our responses to it.
This Classic Edition of the book includes a new introduction by the
author.
