When you think of leadership, most likely some key current or historical figures may come to mind such as John F. Kennedy or Mother Theresa, and while such leaders may vary greatly as to their purpose, style, behaviors, etc. the underlying commonality today is not supposed to be found with them. Rather it is with you. When the such examples come to your mind of the “ideal” leader, this is actually in response to archetypes, strong patterns in the human psyche that persist over time (PSU WC, L. 3, 2015, p. 8) and rest assured, you are not the only one.
Archetypes are embedded throughout patterns of literature and mythology. However, one may not typically answer to the question above the, “Queen of Sheba or King Arthur” as an immediate response of their envision of the “ideal leader”, but indeed they and the like play a significant role in our understanding of the psychodynamic approach to leadership. While the warrior and the magician are the most popular archetypes (PSU WC, L.3, 2015), I found the “great mother” to be the most interesting.
Lets take the Queen of Sheba for example. A universal archetype featured in the Queen of Sheba myth is that of the Great Mother, or founder of a people. Many cultures have a powerful female goddess as the Great Mother and is often equal for a mate, as did the Queen of Sheba, or may even be the more dominant one (Myths & Archetypes, 2015). Does any of this sound familiar? Most likely so. But would you ever have considered that your association of the “ideal leader” comes from a your possessed collective unconscious?
The key take away here, is next time someone asks you a question and you automatically associate a response, take a few moments and think about where that immediate image is stemming from. Next time you are reading literature or mythology, think about the themes and how they apply to your every day life and if you are reading stories of knights and great mothers and magicians to your kids, ask them to think about how those stories may be important later because whether we realize it or not, we are already formulating our “ideal” answers to questions before they are even asked.
References
King Solomon And The Queen Of Sheba. (2015). The History Channel. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiW8h_6q588
Myths & Archetypes. (2005). In Search of Myths and Heroes. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_arch_woman.html#content
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2015). PSYCH 485: Lesson 3: Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/psych485/001/content/03_lesson/12_page.html