Wonder Woman As The Warrior Archetype:
“Psychologically … the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.”
– Carl Jung, MD
Wonder Woman, in my opinion, embodies the Warrior Archetype.
What’s an archetype?
An archetype is a recurring, universal symbolic pattern in literature, story, religion, or mythology. According to Jungian psychology, they can also be a collective symbol present in individual psyches (or souls).
Archetypes, in the therapeutic sense, are therefore thought to exist within each of us. As symbols of greater patterns in our personal history and also in our experience of humanity. Symbols which, when we come into contact with them, can help awake and spark awareness to certain aspects of ourselves. They can also help us navigate and better understand what it means to be human.
There are dozens and dozens of archetypes with varying degrees of definition. But the Warrior Archetype, generally speaking, represents physical strength and the ability to protect and defend oneself and others against “bad or evil” forces.
And yet, while this Warrior Archetype has typically been ascribed to men and to maleness, both history and mythology are littered with examples of women warriors. The Amazons, Joan of Arc, Frances Clayton, The Dahomey Amazons, Brunhild of the Valkyries, Nakano Takeko, the Briton Queen Boudica, Grace O’Malley, and basically this list here.
It’s not only possible for women to embody the warrior archetype. In my opinion, I think we all contain the warrior archetype to some extent.
Cinema and song have included more and more examples of female warrior archetypes recently. But Wonder Woman may represent a far different model of female warrior archetype than what we commonly see.
A Complex, Healthy Warrior Archetype:
“A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
