Although the word archetype has a long history, Carl Jung used it to express something he observed in human dreams. He said the archetypes are a tendency or instinctive trend in the human unconscious to represent certain motifs or themes. As our instinctive urge to reproduce may show itself in consciousness as sexual fantasies, so archetypes show themselves as certain dream, fantasy, or story themes. Just as each individual animal does not create its own instincts, we do not create our own collective thought pattern. The influence these archetypes have upon our conscious self is varied. Partly they are supportive, as instincts are to an animal.
