The Collective Psychosis

Jung argued that humans have a "collective unconscious", a universal and inherited part held deeply within each individual of a species. He thought it was structured with archetypes and archetypal ideas, similar in nature to Levy-Bruh's mythological motifs. Jung incorporated Darwin's theories of evolution into his notions, which makes him especially appealing to me.

Archetypes are manifested in imagery, dreams and visions. Some examples include the mother archetype that then guides the mother-child bond, the hero archetype, and so on. Our behavior and our lives are heavily influenced, perhaps even determined by these archetypes. Birth and death are controlled by archetypes. Even religious experiences are guided by archetypes.

Let's say Jung is right; that in each of us lies a set of patterns that are species-specific, guiding our choices and behavior. I think there might be a competing set of guidelines: the Collective Psychosis.

The Collective Psychosis might be the innate underlying lack of structure, the tendency of people to be unstructured, impulsive, and chaotic. It might also be called a Collective Entropy. It would be unstructured, and so it would have no archetypes.

All systems have both organizing and disorganizing tendencies. Maybe people who are psychotic are simply manifesting behavior underlain by disorder rather than order. Maybe psychotic individuals who hallucinate are connecting to the imagery of the collective psychosis. Maybe we taste the collective psychosis when we choose the forbidden, impulsively behave with abandon, or have scary and incomprehensible, fantastical dreams.

Maybe I'm full of shit.