Are Epicurean Gods Compatible with Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious and Archetypes?

I was reading this Sedley article on Epicurean theological innatism, which argues that the prolepsis of gods is universal and innate to all humans. I think there is a strong parallel there to Jungian collective unconsciousness.

I've often supposed that Jungian archetypes could be meaningful points of reference against prolepseis (in particular). In Epicurean Philosophy: An introduction from the “Garden of Athens", Christos Yapijakis agrees, and connects prolepseis with “images from the subconscious”. Elsewhere, he connects supposes that "the non-rational part of soul [...] was later named 'subconscious' by Sigmund Freud" (92). I caution comparison with Jung, if for no other reason than for his fondness for Plato, but also for his celebration of metaphor (versus Epicurus' frankness). Still, I think it would be very reasonable to suggest that "god" is the "archetype" of a blessedness and imperishability, and that the universal, human spiritual experience is grounded in universal, evolutionary precursors.

Twentier since you seem to have read into this, any comment on Joseph Campbell and his work? (I've heard of him but know virtually nothing.)

Quote from Cassius

Twentier since you seem to have read into this, any comment on Joseph Campbell and his work? (I've heard of him but know virtually nothing.)

I love Joseph Campbell; his approach to mythology helped provide me with personal orientation when it came to spiritual propositions and religious idea. He shares a tremendous in common with Jung, both of whom admire non-traditional spiritual influences, both of whom I would contextualize within the Freudian tradition of psychoanalysis. In general, the approach of each of these thinkers is grounded in the proposition that there is a common, psychological territory through which all humans travel, and that Freud and Jung, among others, could map that territory.

There is something of a double-edged sword here that keeps nagging me from the back of my mind, and I think that is, that, on one hand, the general notion of the "collective unconscious", if we are to mean that common, psychological territory we share (for example, the fear of death), then that is totally coherent with Epicurean Philosophy, and, in my mind, presents us with more accessible ways to interface with ideas like prolepseis. On the other hand, I think that Epicurus would be very critical of the ways that Freud, Jung, and Campbell relied on metaphor. That group of thinkers attempted to provide us with dream analysis, which Epicurus, I think, would have cautioned against (if not necessarily rejected). They also laid the foundations for the idea of personality typologies, which are by no means objective, or even always useful. Joseph Cambell's heroic archetypes are often so general and numerous that they (with respect, because I love Joseph Cambell) seem to me not to have value as predictive tools, scientifically or medically.

A lot of these ideas are ground-breaking and brilliant in that, in the post-Darwin era, they contextualized human psychology within evolutionary theory. They were bold enough to explore taboo, and provided rational explanations for religious experiences, for criminal behavior, for alternative sexuality, and were willing to admit common value with Dharmic traditions.

But the specific features they designate on their psychological maps to define the territory of the human mind are sometimes moreso grounded in by cultural metaphors than neurology and psycho-biology. They can still be meaningful, but without relying on frank vocabulary, some of these ideas, as I see it, get robbed of their usefulness, again, as objective, psychological tools. Clearly psychoanalysis has value ... but so does the placebo affect ( in a significant way). That does not mean that the objects of one's belief are real, only that belief, itself, is powerful.

I find the greatest correspondence between these thinkers and Epicurus to be in their attempt to ground the religious experience within the context of being an animal, and in generally evaluating the similarities of human beliefs and behavior across cultures. Archetypes might be a useful way to understand prolepseis, but there are differences, and Jungian archetypes would not necessarily align with Epicurean archetypes. They also had soft spots for Plato and tantric, Indian practices, so that demonstrates a difference in terms of inspirations, as well.

Quote from Kalosyni

perhaps even though there are many "images" coming into the psyche, it is only the "blessed and incorruptable" which are those of the gods. So those other images which are dark, painful, and ugly are not considered (or not labeled) to be the gods.

This immediately brings up, for me, the vengeful and angry Old Testament god. While I can find value in the Epicurean notion of a god, it's difficult for me to accept this idea as universal. I do, however, think that it can be a universally beneficial way of idealizing the notion of god, or of perfection.