An archetype is a model of behaviours that, once discovered, helps you better understand yourself and others. You are born with them, or a combination of them, and this combination can change according to the time of day or time in your life. Archetypes cut across factors such as age, race, religion, gender, education, and profession. Individual archetypes are often grouped into archetypal families. On our site you will meet these families, which include Innocent, Ruler, Caregiver, Everyman, Explorer, Jester, Creator, Outlaw, Magician, Sage, Lover, and Hero. The idea of the archetype originated with the great philosopher Plato and is at the core of the influential Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s analysis of human behavior.
Jungian archetypes refer to unclear underlying forms or the archetypes-as-such from which emerge images and motifs such as the Caregiver, the Innocent, the Jester, and the Sage among others. History, culture and personal context shape these manifest representations thereby giving them their specific content. These images and motifs are more precisely called archetypal images. However it is common for the term archetype to be used interchangeably to refer to both archetypes-as-such and archetypal images.