According to psychologist Carl Jung, the archetypes are preconscious psychic dispositions. Also, Jung states that they are innate with a permanent imprint of a possible type emerging at any given time in your life; and that they are the key to understanding human meaning and motivation.
The ways to unlock that elusive key is to see a psychologist and go through grueling hours of psychotherapy or just simply take the “The Heroic Myth Self-test”.
The ways to unlock that elusive key is to see a psychologist and go through grueling hours of psychotherapy or just simply take the “The Heroic Myth Self-test”.
I prefer to take the self-test, because I can’t afford the expensive doctor bills. The heroic myth self-test is based on Carol S Pearson “The Hero within, Six Archetypes We Live by” http://www.herowithin.com/index.html.. Pearson’s guidebook interprets the archetypes and attempts to give advice on how we can gain the archetypal advantage to align what is meaningful and motivating. So, we can better use our archetypes for the greater good of our society, the world and ourselves.
The heroic myth self-test has four parts: how I see myself, how others see me, the influence of my family of origin and the influence of my workplace. After I completed the test I combined my results and came up with Altruist being my positive and orphan my negative. However, in the interest of not making my blog entry excessively long and boring, I choose to write about my positive archetype only.
The definition of the archetype Altruist, is helping behavior that is motivated by a selfless concern for the welfare of another person. However, not all helping behavior is altruism, because there are a number of possible selfish motives to help another person, such as for monetary reasons or to get “brownie” points from your boss, loved one, God and even society (Politician). The act of selfless helping has to be a true concern of the welfare for another person and also to have joy while helping that person. In addition, the altruist must have the virtue of compassion. I believe the one true meaning that reflects altruist archetype is motherhood.
I came across the beautiful poem "Mother, You Are the Greatest Gift in My Life" by Stacey Swayze. The words in the poem describe the unconditional most selfless acts one person can do for another human being. For instance, when a mother decides to make a selfless choice to become pregnant, does she not sacrifice her body for the growing fetus? Does she not give up drinking alcohol, smoking and ingesting other harmful substances, so, her child inside of her can grow and be healthy? Additionally, even though it is not common any longer as it was decades and centuries ago for mothers to die during childbirth, yet knowing that risk, the mother still would sacrifice her life for her child.
I Don't recall the first time you held me
Or when I first heard your voice
But from the first moment you held me in your arms
You made the most selfless choice
You chose to change your busy life so that my life could begin
You were my shelter from the rain, on you I could depend
You held my hand when I was afraid and helped me to mend my first broken heart
You bandaged my wounds, wiped my tears and kept me from falling apart
You loved me without question no matter what I did
You shaped me into a confident adult from such an awkward kid
Even though you're not always right beside me
Your love is matched by no other
And thank God each day for his greatest gift
Making you my mother
But from the first moment you held me in your arms
You made the most selfless choice
You chose to change your busy life so that my life could begin
You were my shelter from the rain, on you I could depend
You held my hand when I was afraid and helped me to mend my first broken heart
You bandaged my wounds, wiped my tears and kept me from falling apart
You loved me without question no matter what I did
You shaped me into a confident adult from such an awkward kid
Even though you're not always right beside me
Your love is matched by no other
And thank God each day for his greatest gift
Making you my mother
Moreover, it does not end with the painful childbirth, the selfless acts and sacrifices continue well into the child’s teen and adult years. For example, the mother has compassion like no other; if her child has pain physical or otherwise emotionally, the mother would literally give her right arm for her child’s pain to stop. I know I would. So, in my opinion the altruist is a mother.
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In addition, I made a collage that depicts the mothers’ undying devotion to her offspring. The photos were taken from Google images. The Archetype does not have to be of humans alone. In fact, most species from animals to the mythical mermaids will have the archetype of altruist.
Work cited:
The poem "Mother, You Are the Greatest Gift in My Life" by Stacey Swayze is from the Blue Mountain Arts publication For My Wonderful Mother
“mother, you are the greatest gift in my life”.squidoo,Web.08 October 2010
“mother, you are the greatest gift in my life”.squidoo,Web.08 October 2010
“Jungarchtypes”.iloveulove,web.08 October 2010.
http://www.iloveulove.com/psychology/jung/jungarchetypes.htm
http://www.iloveulove.com/psychology/jung/jungarchetypes.htm
“Six archetypes we live by”.herowithin,Web.09 October 2010.
“Mother and child”.googleimages, Web.09 October 2010.
I loved the poem "Mother, you are the greatest gift in my life" it made me realize how much my mother fought and sacrificed for me, even though I am not a mother, I can relate from the same unconditional love you speak of. Your post was interesting and it kept me hooked until the very end. Good Job! (:
ReplyDeleteI thought this we very well done! Your bricolage is moving along nicely. Keep it up!
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