Editing Collective unconscious (section)

==Minimal and maximal interpretations==
In a minimalist interpretation of what would then appear as "Jung's much misunderstood idea of the collective unconscious", his idea was "simply that certain structures and predispositions of the unconscious are common to all of us ... [on] an inherited, species-specific, genetic basis".<ref>Stan Gooch, ''Total Man'' (London 1975) p. 433.</ref> Thus "one could as easily speak of the 'collective arm' – meaning the basic pattern of bones and muscles which all human arms share in common."<ref>Gooch, p. 433.</ref>

Others point out however that "there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung's various descriptions of the Collective Unconscious. Sometimes he seems to regard the predisposition to experience certain images as understandable in terms of some genetic model"<ref>D. A G. Cook, "Jung" in Richard L. Gregory, ''The Oxford Companion to the Mind'' (Oxford 1987) p. 405</ref> &ndash; as with the collective arm. However, Jung was "also at pains to stress the [[numinous]] quality of these experiences, and there can be no doubt that he was attracted to the idea that the archetypes afford evidence of some communion with some divine or world mind', and perhaps 'his popularity as a thinker derives precisely from this"<ref>Cook, p. 405</ref> &ndash; the maximal interpretation.

[[Marie-Louise von Franz]] accepted that "it is naturally very tempting to identify the hypothesis of the collective unconscious historically and regressively with the ancient idea of an all-extensive [[Anima mundi|world-soul]]."<ref>Marie-Louise von Franz, ''Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology'' (1985) p. 85</ref> [[New Age]] writer Sherry Healy goes further, claiming that Jung himself "dared to suggest that the human mind could link to ideas and motivations called the collective unconscious ... a body of unconscious energy that lives forever."<ref>Sherry Healy, ''Dare to be Intuitive'' (2005) p. 10</ref> This is the idea of [[monopsychism]].

Other researchers, including Alexander Fowler, have proposed using the minimal interpretation of his work and incorporating it into that of the theory of biological evolution (i.e., sexual selection) or to unify disparate theoretical orientations within psychology such as neuropsychology, evolutionary psychology and analytical psychology as Jung's postulation of an evidenced mechanism for the genetic transmission of information through sexual selection provides a singular explanation for unanswered questions held by those of varied theoretical orientations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fowler |first=Alexander G. |date=2023-01-01 |title=On the Unification of Psychological Theory: Our Quandary |url=https://www.academia.edu/108606138 |journal=International Journal of Science and Research |volume=12 |issue=10 |pages=1579–1581 |doi=10.21275/SR231019204153 |issn=2319-7064|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fowler |first=Alexander G. |date=2024-01-01 |title=Instinct and Ritual |url=https://www.academia.edu/122036935 |journal=Academia}}</ref>