Archetype

The concept of an archetype (/ˈɑːrkɪtaɪp/ AR-ki-type; from Ancient Greek ἄρχω árkhō 'to begin', and τύπος túpos 'sort, type') appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.

An archetype can be any of the following:

1. a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy, emulate, or "merge" into. Informal synonyms frequently used for this definition include "standard example", "basic example", and the longer-form "archetypal example"; mathematical archetypes often appear as "canonical examples".
2. the Platonic concept of pure form, believed to embody the fundamental characteristics of a thing.
3. the Jungian psychology concept of an inherited unconscious predisposition, behavioural trait or tendency ("instinct") shared among the members of the species; as any behavioural trait the tendency comes to being by way of patterns of thought, images, affects or pulsions; unlike personality traits it is collective, not personal; and the tendency represents the evolutionary adaptation to specific cues from the environment: survival and thriving in the physical environment, the relating function, acquiring knowledge, etc. It is communicated graphically as archetypal "figures".
4. a constantly-recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology. This definition refers to the recurrence of characters or ideas sharing similar traits throughout various, seemingly unrelated cases in classic storytelling, media, etc. This usage of the term draws from both comparative anthropology and from Jungian archetypal theory.

Archetypes are also very close analogies to instincts, in that, long before any consciousness develops, it is the impersonal and inherited traits of human beings that present and motivate human behavior.^[1] They also continue to influence feelings and behavior even after some degree of consciousness developed later on.^[1]