Archetypes are patterns or structures common to all people-cross-culturally.  Part of the core human experience, these archetypes can be seen as storylines that define with a particular meaning and context the events of life. Carol Pearson has identified twelve common archetypes and produced a psychological tool (the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator) to assist people in identifying for themselves the archetypes that hold the most sway in their lives. 
 
As I engage ever more deeply in the presidential race underway in the United States this spring, I am struck at how beneficial the archetypes are in explaining the candidates that remain in this political race and the arguments that each is making. While Pearson's model includes twelve archetypes, my observations are rooted in only four of them-the Innocent, the Orphan, the Warrior and the Magician.
 
Innocent Archetype.  The story the Innocent archetype sees, understands and lives is one that asserts and needs to believe that the world is a place of hope and a happy tomorrow-a world in which faith and trust are justly bestowed on people and systems worthy of being believed in. The Innocent archetype helps us to trust, to hope and to believe that a better day lies ahead.
 
Orphan Archetype. The story the Orphan archetype sees, understands and lives is one that asserts and refuses to let go of the hurt, pain and betrayal that exist, have existed, and may well be on the horizon again. The Orphan archetype helps us see what is and not to be duped or conned into believing those who would otherwise fool, betray or mislead us.    
 
Warrior Archetype. The story the Warrior archetype sees, understands and lives is one of assertion, drive and competition. Being stronger and more combative-and seeing the world as full of challenges to be met, opposed and overcome-these are the drivers of the Warrior archetype.  It is the Warrior archetype that helps us to confront obstacles, to compete, to fight-to tap our power and use it to win what we want.
 
Magician Archetype. The story the Magician archetype sees, understands and lives is one that transforms reality by reframing it, realigning our understanding and shifting the very paradigms on which we have here-to-fore rested. Though this archetype model is secular, the idea of the holy man or woman who transforms lives and understanding through an infusion of spirit or a fundamental paradigm shift is included within this archetype.  It is the Magician archetype that helps us transform and transcend current reality to find new ways of dealing, being and succeeding.
 
Hillary Clinton-The Orphan Warrior

 

Clinton seems very much to be living an Orphan/Warrior story.  She sees her campaign as a struggle. After winning the Pennsylvania primary, she said, "Americans don't give up and they want a President who doesn't give up." Her voice track is loaded with aggressive Warrior/ Orphan statements like "I know how to fight.  I've been tested and vetted, and I know how to withstand whatever the Republicans will throw at me. You need someone who'll fight for you and your values.  I'm that fighter." These are the kinds of things that we have heard from Clinton from the beginning. Hillary Clinton's storyline seems to be that times are hard, and when times are hard, you need a fighter, someone who can get in there and scrap for what is right, work harder than the next person and win the day.  This is an Orphan/Warrior story.  
 
Barack Obama-The Innocent Magician

Obama is offering an Innocent/Magician narrative. His introduction to the national Democratic Party came with his paradigm shifting speech in the convention of 2004. With optimism and an audacious sense of hope, he began to rethink the blue state/red state stalemate that our national politics had become. He reminded us of all the gun owning NASCAR fans in blue states and the gay friends struggling for health care we have in red states and that when we all come together we make up the United States.  His narrative promises a post-partisan administration that reaches across the aisle, energizes young voters, reestablishes America's international reputation, engages our enemies and negotiates its way out of here-to-fore intractable partisan deadlocks. He claims he wants not to simply change the party who occupies the White House, but change-fundamentally-the political climate in the nation. Obama's narrative is hopeful, trusting and transformative-very much the Innocent Magician.  
 
John McCain-The Orphan Warrior

Like Hillary Clinton, John McCain is an Orphan Warrior.  As a former prisoner of war, he has long known the world is full of people who would do harm and wish him ill. For over a quarter century, McCain has met this dangerous world head on-scrapping with it readily at every turn.  His reputation has long been that of the maverick, a firebrand who will run up against his opponents and take them on even if the odds are long or his views are unpopular or out of the mainstream. He relishes a fight and believes that fights should be strenuously fought and ultimately won-against Bush in 2000, against the rest of the Republican field in 2008, against Islamic Extremism, and against the Democratic Presidential candidate come this Fall. McCain's narrative is Orphan/Warrior.
 
How the Candidates Interact with Each Other

Hillary Clinton and John McCain, though politically quite different, both present the same narrative-one that calls for a leader to fight hard to win the battles against an enemy who threatens and is hard at work to bring harm and danger.  An effective leader, in this narrative, is one who toils harder, longer and more diligently than his or her adversaries. From this narrative's perspective, the Innocent Magician imagery of Barack Obama is fluff, mist, words unsupported by action--naïve certainly and dangerously out of touch and unprepared in the extreme.
 
I'm reminded of a recent example illustrating the differences in McCain and Obama. Not long ago, Obama gave a speech emphasizing the power and urgency of hope. The speech was broad, positive and futuristic-right out of the Innocent Magician's script.  A day or two later, McCain gave a speech in which he emphasized hope as well-clearly picking up on Obama's narrative.  However, in his speech, McCain said he understood well what hope was-not mere words and dreams. Hope was that to which a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese jail cell clung to get him through years of abuse and neglect.  He went on to discuss his experiences and the subsequent role that hope had played in his life of abuse, toil and subsequent triumph.  In so doing, McCain reframed hope not as a banner under which we can bond to create a new future-a new reality, but rather as a rallying cry to bind us together for the fight we have before us. This is an Orphan Warrior theme.
 
Barack Obama's Innocent Magician narrative sees the combative, threat-oriented approach of the Orphan Warrior as negative and poisonous-cynical certainly and dangerous in the extreme in the way that it polarizes and hardens opinion and prevents enthusiasm, hope and engagement that could, when tapped, transform approaches to political efforts and struggles long stalemated.  This kind of infusion of energy and fundamental realignment and reframing is what the Innocent Magician's story is all about.
 
What story do we want to be living?  The political questions we have before us will not only decide what individual and political party will hold the reigns of power in the next few years-but the decisions we make now and in the year before us actually will both reflect and establish the narrative we see the most power and reality in.  Do we want to shake off the cynicism and negativity of an outdated political process and by so doing transform our government and create together something new? Or rather, do we choose a leader who will fight as our surrogate the enemies (foreign and domestic) that threaten our interests?
 
Using Archetypes for Awareness and Development

Carol Pearson has taken the abstraction and complexity of Carl Jung's archetypes and made them both accessible and actionable. With twelve distinct archetypes detailed, Pearson's model is brought to life in her archetype tool, the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator (PMAI).  A self-awareness and leadership development tool of unique power and insight, this tool allows participants to explore the narratives that motivate them and give their actions context and meaning.  
 
One recent client realized through the use of the PMAI that she had long been unable or unwilling to access her Destroyer archetype-that narrative within her that drove her to cut her losses and bring things to closure.  Long suffering in an unhealthy personal relationship, it was through the awakening of this archetype that she was able to turn the page on a bad situation and move on. Another recent leader I was coaching discovered that the dominance of his own Caregiver archetype-while it drove them to care for others and tend to their personal and professional needs-had led him to create a sense of dependence and disempowerment among the people whose careers he ultimately wanted to nurture. This person's subsequent goals were to pull back on one archetype to allow for other narratives and leadership behaviors to develop. As it did for these two leaders, an understanding of the archetypes that guide and structure your life gives you a unique set of handles on your own development.
 
If you are interested in learning more about archetypes and their application, consider either Pearson's latest book, "What Story Are You Living?" or OKA's Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator (PMAI) workshop-a great one-day overview of this tool and its application to self and organizational development and awareness. This workshop provides professionals with experience and knowledge needed to administer, score and interpret the PMAI for use with yourself, clients, patients, employees, students and others. Both the book and the workshop are detailed above - here are quick links: (Read About the Book) (Read About the Class).

 

Please keep in touch!

  

Sincerely yours,

 

Hile Rutledge

OKA

Chief Executive Officer