MALE FANTASIES - MALE IDENTITY AND THE CO LLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

Current criticism of C. G. Jung's hypothesis of the existence of a col lective unconscious takes as its starting point the 12 year-old Carl G ustav's 'Munstererlebnis' and the interpretatations which conservative Jung scholars have given to this scene, adapting it to their time. Th e critics see the collective unconscious as the projection of a severe defensive struggle on Jung's part - and, on the part of analytical ps ychology - to avoid the integration of emerging traumatic material. In pre-Christian American Indian myths, the author finds material analog ous to the 'Munstererlebnis' which counters this criticism by making t he collective character of the experience plausible while demonstratin g the psychological and psychotherapeutic relevance of the hypothesize d existence of a collective unconscious. At the same time, the interpr etation of the 'Munstererlebnis' as the paradigmatic expression of the sufferings of western man in a Christian world becomes untenable.