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‘This compelling, rich and provocative exchange between a renowned philosopher-psychoanalyst and a noted Jungian-oriented psychiatrist brings new vitality and insight to one of the most complex concepts of analytical psychology. The archetype, its origins and development in the human psyche, is explored in dynamic ways that challenge the premises of past debates and offer novel non-binary reconsiderations that transcend previous nature versus culture arguments. The authors offer an expansion of thirdness that will help shape research, as well as philosophical and theoretical considerations of archetypal realities into the foreseeable future.’ Joe Cambray, PhD, President-CEO, Pacifica Graduate Institute; author of Synchronicity ‘This book is truly innovative in content and truly unique in style. Designed as a dialog between two authors well known as experts in analytical psychology, it reflects on C.G. Jung’s key concept of archetypes and presents current progress in its proper understanding. A particularly valuable and challenging aspect of their approach is its metaphysical frame, offering important cross-fertilization between Jung’s oeuvre and contemporary trends in philosophy. An inspiring book that suggests novel avenues to explore the origin of consciousness and the mind-matter problem beyond the all-too narrow boundaries of physicalist positions.’ Harald Atmanspacher, Head of the Department of Theory and Data Analysis of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg; Faculty Member, C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich; and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mind and Matter ‘A much needed and most welcome constructive debate on the centrality of archetype theory in Jungian psychology. The authors’ intellectual rigor is to be applauded. Anyone seriously interested in the future of Jungian psychology should study this book carefully.’ Murray Stein, PhD, author of Jung’s Map of the Soul Archetypal Ontology In this novel re-examination of the archetype construct, philosopher Jon Mills and psychiatrist Erik Goodwyn engage in spirited dialogue on the origins, nature, and scope of what archetypes actually constitute, their relation to the greater questions of psyche and worldhood, and their relevance for Jungian studies and analytical psychology today. Arguably the most definitive feature of Jung’s metapsychology is his theory of archetypes. It is the fulcrum on which his analytical depth psychology rests. With recent trends in post-Jungian and neo-Jungian perspectives that have embraced developmental, relational, social justice, and postmodern paradigms, classical archetype theory has largely become a drowning genre. Despite the archetypal school of James Hillman and his contemporaries, and the archetype debates that captured our attention over two decades ago, contemporary Jungians are preoccupied with the lived reality of the existential subject and the personal unconscious over the collective transpersonal forces derived from archaic ontology. Archetypal Ontology will be of interest to psychoanalysts, philosophers, transpersonal psychologists, cultural theorists, anthropologists, religious scholars, and scholars of many disciplines in the arts and humanities, analytical psychology, and post-Jungian studies. Jon Mills, PsyD, PhD, ABPP, is a Canadian philosopher and psychoanalyst. He is Honorary Professor at the Department of Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK, as well as a faculty member in the postgrad- uate programs in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, and the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis, USA. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his scholar- ship, and the author and/or editor of over 30 books in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Erik Goodwyn, MD, is Clinical Associate Professor, Department of P sychiatry, WWAMI University of Washington School of Medicine-Billings, Montana affiliate. He has authored numerous publications in the field of consciousness studies, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, mythology, philosophy, anthropology, and the psychology of religion, including 5 books. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Jungian Studies. Philosophy & Psychoanalysis Book Series Jon Mills Series Editor Philosophy & Psychoanalysis is dedicated to current developments and cutting-edge research in the philosophical sciences, phenomenology, her- meneutics, existentialism, logic, semiotics, cultural studies, social criticism, and the humanities that engage and enrich psychoanalytic thought through philosophical rigor. With the philosophical turn in psychoanalysis comes a new era of theoretical research that revisits past paradigms while invigor- ating new approaches to theoretical, historical, contemporary, and applied psychoanalysis. No subject or discipline is immune from psychoanalytic reflection within a philosophical context including psychology, sociology, anthropology, politics, the arts, religion, science, culture, physics, and the nature of morality. Philosophical approaches to psychoanalysis may stimu- late new areas of knowledge that have conceptual and applied value beyond the consulting room reflective of greater society at large. In the spirit of pluralism, Philosophy & Psychoanalysis is open to any theoretical school in philosophy and psychoanalysis that offers novel, scholarly, and important insights in the way we come to understand our world. Titles in this series: Enriching Psychoanalysis Integrating Concepts from Contemporary Science and Philosophy Edited by John Turtz and Gerald J. Gargiulo Psyche, Culture, World Excursions in Existentialism and Psychoanalytic Philosophy by Jon Mills The Emergent Container in Psychoanalysis Experiencing Absence and Future by Ana Martinez Acobi Archetypal Ontology New Directions in Analytical Psychology by Jon Mills and Erik Goodwyn Archetypal Ontology New Directions in Analytical Psychology Jon Mills and Erik Goodwyn Designed cover image: Fishing by Levitation by Bob ‘Omar’ Tunnoch, www.bobomartunnoch.com First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Jon Mills and Erik Goodwyn. The right of Jon Mills and Erik Goodwyn to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-39481-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-39480-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-34992-1 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003349921 Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra Contents Prolegomenon viii JON MILLS 1 The essence of archetypes 1 JON MILLS 2 Archetypal origins: Biology vs culture is a false dichotomy 28 ERIK GOODWYN 3 On the origins of archetypes 45 JON MILLS 4 Commentary on Mills’ “The essence of archetypes” 50 ERIK GOODWYN 5 Archetypal metaphysics and the psyworld 59 JON MILLS 6 The origins of psyche: From experience to ontology 77 ERIK GOODWYN 7 Archetype, psyche, world: From experience to cosmopsychism 95 JON MILLS 8 Psyche, world, archetype: Final thoughts 113 ERIK GOODWYN About the authors 135 Index 137 Prolegomenon Jon Mills Arguably, the most definitive feature of Jung’s metapsychology is his theory of archetypes. It is the fulcrum on which his analytical depth psychology rests. With recent trends in post-Jungian and neo-Jungian perspectives that have embraced evolutionary science, attachment theory, developmental, relational, and postmodern paradigms, as well as social justice activism, classical archetype theory has largely become a drowning genre. Despite the archetypal school of James Hillman and his contemporaries and the Cambridge archetype debates that captured our attention over two decades ago, contemporary Jungians are preoccupied with the lived reality of the existential subject and the personal unconscious over the collective transpersonal forces derived from archaic ontology. In our re-examination of the archetype construct, Erik Goodwyn and I engage in spirited dialogue on the origins, nature, and scope of what archetypes actually constitute, their relation to the greater questions of psyche and worldhood, and their relevance for Jungian studies and analytical psychology today. Apart from offering a novel theory of mind and cosmos, what is unique about this book is the structure, format, style, and approach to mutual critique. Each of us presents a chapter on the essence and origins of archetypes, only then to critique each other’s work in an ongoing interchange of ideas, challenges, and joint criticisms where both agreements and disagreements are fleshed out from different vantage points in the human sciences. This di- alogical format builds on each other’s previous theses and arguments, clar- ifies ambiguities, and refines earlier theoretical commitments that naturally develop into more fruitful comparisons in methodology and content that are mutually compatible and complementary in focus. As the discussion un- folds in an organic fashion, we move beyond the parameters of archetype theory to engage the greater questions of what constitutes psyche, world, and a transpersonal collective mind. The end result leads us to entertain a psychic cosmogony based in speculative metaphysics that offers new perspectives in ontology, which further expands and enriches Jung’s original theory of a collective unconscious. Prolegomenon ix To this day, there is no unified consensus on what constitutes an archetype. Even Jung himself was murky at best. Jungians are divided and propose contradictory—if not unintelligible theories—about the ground, breadth, and limits to archetypal discourse, ranging from uncritical acceptance of classical paradigms to dismissing the notion altogether. This book provides a corrective in clarity and debate between two scholars from two different backgrounds: one from philosophy and psychoanalysis, the other from the biological sciences and psychiatry. Together these dialogues are unique in the history of Jungian psychology for they approach the archetype question from sundry points of view including metaphysics, onto-phenomenology, philosophy of mind, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology. Taken as a whole, we suggest, these exchanges advance the discipline of analytical psychology with philosophical, scientific, and logical rigor. The result is a new theory of archetypes and psyche that are decon- structed from their historical origins, updated, and theoretically refined to account for conventions in understanding the interface between philosophy, psychology, bioscience, and culture in modern society today. Overview and new directions Jung’s notion of the archetype remains an equivocal concept, so much so that Jungians and post-Jungians have failed to agree on its essential nature. In Chapter 1, I wish to argue that an archetype may be understood as an unconscious schema that is self-constitutive and emerges into consciousness from its own a priori ground, hence an autonomous self-determinative act derived from archaic ontology. After offering an analysis of the archetype debate, I set out to philosophically investigate the essence of an archetype by examining its origins and dialectical reflections as a process system aris- ing from its own autochthonous parameters. I offer a descriptive explica- tion of the inner constitution and birth of an archetype based on internal rupture and the desire to project its universality, form, and patternings into psychic reality as self-instantiating replicators. Archetypal content is the ap- pearance of essence as the products of self-manifestation, for an archetype must appear in order to be made actual. Here we must seriously question that, in the beginning, if an archetype is self-constituted and self-generative, the notion and validity of a collective unconscious become rather dubious, if not superfluous. I conclude by sketching out an archetypal theory of alterity based on dialectical logic. In Chapter 2, Erik Goodwyn offers his thesis on archetypal origins and argues that the framing of the debate as being either derived from biology versus culture is a false dichotomy. Here, he argues that the question of whether or not archetypes are transmitted biologically or culturally is wrongly posed and has hampered progress in Jungian thought regarding archetype theory. Considerations regarding psychological development show