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272 SPIRIT AND THE MIND
images and themes of all religions, mythologies, legends and fairy tales of all ages. The archetypes also emerged through dreams and visions, in cases of deep psychological analysis, in profound, subjective experience, and in major mental disorder.
Jung’s work with archetypes greatly broadened our vision of self as he found stratas of awareness that transcended space and time, and were common to all men—an inner memory of our entire existence as a people. These archetypal images are so various and numerous, that they defy comprehensive listing, but four broad categories have been described and are briefly summarized here. They are—the archetype of the great mother, the spiritual father, the archetype of transformation (pertaining to the psychic process of growth, change and transition) and the central archetype, the Self (expressing a psychic wholeness or totality). The emerging central archetype, representing deepening spiritual awareness, may manifest in the form of a special geometric figure, called a mandala. In its simplest form, a mandala is a quadrated circle, combining the elements of a circle with a square, a cross or some other expression of four-foldness. It represents a basic unifying and integrating principle lying at the very root of the psyche. It is felt in Jungian analysis that a fully developed mandala usually emerges in an individual’s dreams after a long process of psychological development. It may be accompanied by a feeling of release from an otherwise irreconcilable conflict and may convey an expanded awareness of the oneness of all creation.1
Developments within the past twenty years in psychology, first loosely combined under the general heading “The New Psychology” and more recently, “Humanistic Psychology,” have explored the possibility of expanding awareness to enhance creativity and reveal a deeper meaning and purpose in life.
Fathered by Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychology ushered in the human potential movement and in 1973 was accepted by the American Psychologic Association as its newest branch. Maslow was the first major American psychologist to postulate that man is an evolutionary creature whose higher nature seeks actualization just as surely as does his lower nature, and that sickness arises when this upward evolution, this need for self-actualization, is blocked. “The higher nature,” Maslow said, “includes the need for meaningful