Anton Chekhov and the Collective Unconscious

Abstract

Anton Chekhov, a Russian writer and playwright, wrote numerous short stories throughout his life that depicted life in 19th century Russia. These stories offer a window into the reality of life at the time for people of both lower and upper classes. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, developed onto Sigmund Freud’s, an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, concepts of the unconscious. Jung states that a collective unconscious was found in each and every individual, where a collection of past events, behaviors, and thoughts were stored from past ancestors. According to Jung, each individual unknowingly acts according to these events, behaviors, and thoughts in their daily lives, without knowing or questioning where these actions come from. Chekhov’s writings and Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious come together in order to explain the actions and behaviors of lower and upper-class people in 19th century Russia towards themselves and each other.