In working with stories, myth, fairy tales and legends, we are directly relating to Archetypes.

What are Archetypes?

Carl Gustav Jung first used the term Archetype in 1919.

In addition to the personal unconscious, he posited a collective unconscious which is formed of two components, the Instincts and the Archetypes. The instincts are impulses which carry out actions from necessity, and have a biological quality similar to the homing instincts in bird or dogs barking. Instincts determine our actions. Yet in the same manner Jung suggests that there are innate unconscious modes of understanding which regulate our perception itself. These are the Archetypes. They are inborn forms of ‘intuition’.

Archetypes have no material existence and reveal themselves only as images. For example in all ages and cultures mankind imagined itself in communion with a ‘wise spirit’. One of the most common forms for this conception is the image of the wise old man found in innumerable myths and legends. Other Archetypes could be: The Inexperienced young hero, The beautiful princess, the clever old queen, the trickster, the useless old king, the witch, the troll, the nurturing parent, the jealous brother, the loyal friend etc etc.

The idea is that we all have all of these Archetypes as a part of our individual make up - and that we are all able to recognise and react to these Archetypes whenever we meet them in others. We are simply born with these inborn forms of intuitions, which reveals themselves to us in images.

Dan facilitates worshops in the use of archetypes in performance as well as using archetypes in drama therapy.