Recently, I’ve been going through a renewing process and learning about archetypes and what my archetype is. My archetype is the caregiver (teacher.) Caroline Myss writes a great book on how to figure out your archetype called “Archetypes.”
The Caregiver: Those who give their lives to serving and protecting others. Myss mentions that often these are the types that need to be told to stop and relax! Do something for yourself! Parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, healers, coaches, and more—these are the ones, according to Myss, who can tolerate to see pain in another human being. They are self-sacrificing, and at time, martyrs.
Myss’s Examples: The Mother, The Teacher, The Sister
What Archetype are you? Does your business reflect your archetype?
Other interesting articles on archetypes
- Branding with Archetypes
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes
The word archetype is actually derived from the Latin and Greek languages, but the world of psychiatry, particularly the work of Carl Jung, is what brought the word into common usage.
Simply stated, an archetype is a prototype, or an original model. An archetype can also be used to mean the ideal example of a type.
Carl Jung used the word archetype to mean an instinct pattern of thought or imagery that was derived from collective experience. Jung believed in the existence of the collective unconscious – that is that people are born knowing things learned from their ancestors.
