PrimeWire

Thanks for the Hillman reference! Carl Jung, also known as “CJ” by his drinking buddies, introduced me to archetypes. The movie “Altered States” kind of made it come alive. Meanwhile, Freud just kept talking about his dreams, cocaine and some hot sister-in-law.

Snark aside, I can’t help but think Goffman got his conceit from Shakespeare, “the world’s a stage and we are merely players”. Nevertheless, he got a PhD and a whole career out of evolving that meme. Go Canucks!

And speaking of memes, Richard Dawkins’ idea on undying cultural beliefs that evolve over millennia intersects with archetypes. A clunky analogy might be hardware (instinctual archetypes) versus firmware (culture memes). Just recently, audiences were wowed by Homer, but they marketed it as Ralph Fiennes in the “The Homecoming”. Everyone still found something to relate to.

IMAO our immutable instincts and drives underpin this constancy in stories. We may change how we interact and act, but not so much how we feel.