I was especially interested in Professor Vesna’s discussion of Franz Joseph Gall’s contributions to the idea of “Phrenology,” seeing as I’m actually learning about Phrenology and Physiognomy, as represented within the Victorian and Romantic periods of English Literature in my Senior Capstone for my English Major. In my class (entitled the “The Brontës in Context”), we’ve traced the artistic portrayal of phrenology in Victorian novels such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in the hopes of showing how serious Victorians were regarding their beliefs that the outside of the human body reflected in the inside of the human body. For example, in all three of these Victorian novels, it is suggested that that the size of one’s skull reflects back upon one’s intelligence (Armstrong). Furthermore, several critics have explored the “Brontë Brow” (i.e. each novel’s attempt to classify characters as either “high brow” or “low brow”) as evidence of phrenological beliefs during the 19th century (Shrewsday).
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| Victorian Constructs of Phrenology |
Beyond this week’s discussion of Gall’s notion of Phrenology, I was also very interested in our discussion of Carl Jung’s notion of the Collective Unconscious — “a form of the unconscious common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain” (Britannica - “The Collective Unconscious”). While it’s difficult to provide scientific proof for the Collective Unconscious, it’s definitely interesting to think about commonalities between humans and their thought processes. To think that ALL of us have the same “core” of unconscious thoughts (as denoted by mythical archetypes and the structure of our brains) is an extremely powerful idea.
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| What is the Collective Unconscious? |
After researching further into Jung’s idea of the Collective Unconscious, I found this really interesting video by Daniel Vondráček on Vimeo entitled “The Collective Unconscious.” In the video, he describes the Collective Unconscious as a “type of connection” where “every person shares his individual process of thinking.” Although it’s performed in another language, there are subtitles for clarity.
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| "The Collective Unconscious" - Daniel Vondráček |
Click here to see the video: https://vimeo.com/19837398
Armstrong, Mary A. “Reading a Head: “Jane Eyre,” Phrenology, and the Homoerotics of Legibility.” Victorian Literature and Culture. 33.1 (2005): 107-132. JSTOR. Web. 13 May 2015.
"Collective Unconscious | Psychology." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
Shrewsday, Kate. “The Brontë Brow: Visiting the Phrenologist.” KateShrewsday.com. 24 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 May 2015.
Victorian Constructs of Phrenology. Digital image. Victorian Contexts. VictorianContexts.pbworks.com, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
What is the Collective Unconscious?. Digital image. Temple Illuminatus. Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt1.mov.” UCOnlineProgram. YouTube. 17 May 2012. Web. 13 May 2015
Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt2.mov.” UCOnlineProgram. YouTube. 17 May 2012. Web. 13 May 2015
Vondráček, Daniel. “The Collective Unconscious.” Vimeo. 2011. Web. 13 May 2015.
https://vimeo.com/19837398
“The Collective Unconscious.” is really amazing. I have thought about Collective Unconscious before reading it. However, I am totally with him about "every person shares his individual process of thinking."
ReplyDeleteAs reading from some other resources, every individual person's mind is unique. We might share some common part but still, the process of thinking is somewhat different due to the environment or culture difference.