collective unconscious

noun

: the inherited part of the unconscious that especially in the psychoanalytic theory of Carl Gustav Jung occurs in and is shared by all the members of a people or race

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

While the songs of the Indigo Girls might be embedded firmly in our collective unconscious, the story of the band’s Amy Ray and Emily Saliers isn’t quite as well known—yet. —The Editors, Town & Country, 19 Jan. 2023

Carl Jung thought the experience was related to the collective unconscious. —Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 18 June 2021

The whole of it is like stepping into a time machine that goes in both directions at once: to the not-so-distant past of analog America and to a post-apocalyptic, post-human world that seems to reside in the collective unconscious. —Howard Fishman, Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2022

It’s as though the film is a collective unconscious where ideas and themes tumble about and bubble to the surface via different modes of expression. —Jessica Kiang, Variety, 8 July 2022

These are the universal characters that reside within our collective unconscious. —Yec, Forbes, 2 June 2022

And it is driven by an effort to sanitize our collective unconscious, to make our fascination with this dreamlike image express virtues such as compassion and hope. —Michael W. Clune, Harper’s Magazine , 16 Mar. 2022

So trauma sank back down into the collective unconscious once more, only to reemerge after a defeat inflicted on U.S. forces that—because of all the asymmetries of force and culture involved—couldn’t be repressed. —Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 23 Nov. 2021

Kurant is fascinated by moments in which new developments — the agricultural revolution, the invention of writing, the advent of electricity — transform humanity, rewiring both individual brains and the collective unconscious. —New York Times, 12 Nov. 2021

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Word History

Etymology

translation of German kollektives Unbewusstes

First Known Use

1917, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

collective unconscious

noun

col·​lec·​tive unconscious kə-ˈlek-tiv- 

: the genetically determined part of the unconscious that especially in the psychoanalytic theory of C. G. Jung occurs in all the members of a people or race