Archetype

The concept of an archetype <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɑr</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >k</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >t</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >aɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >p</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a> is found in areas relating to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior" title="Behavior" >behavior</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychology#Emergence_of_German_experimental_psychology" title="History of psychology" >modern psychological theory</a>, and literary analysis. An archetype can be

<ol >

<li >a statement, pattern of behavior, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_theory" title="Prototype theory" >prototype</a> which other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy or emulate;</li>

<li >a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_philosophy" title="Platonic philosophy" class="mw-redirect" >Platonic philosophical idea</a> referring to pure <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Forms" title="Theory of Forms" >forms</a> which embody the fundamental characteristics of a thing;</li>

<li >a collectively-inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., that is universally present in individual psyches, as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_psychology" title="Jungian psychology" class="mw-redirect" >Jungian psychology</a>;</li>

<li >or a constantly recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology (this usage of the term draws from both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropology" title="Cultural anthropology" >comparative anthropology</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes" title="Jungian archetypes" >Jungian archetypal theory</a>).</li>

</ol>

In the first sense, many more informal terms are frequently used instead, such as "standard example" or "basic example", and the longer form "archetypal example" is also found. In mathematics, an archetype is often called a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_(disambiguation)" title="Canonical (disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect" >canonical</a> example".

Archetype

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