Abstract

This chapter uses Archetypal Thematic Analysis (ATA) to examine two high-profile cultural figures—Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk—as contemporary cultural embodiments of Jungian archetypes. My aim is to show that high-profile cultural figures constitute a popular culture pantheon which shifts form over time. The rise of these cultural figures occurs alongside synchronistic cultural events which can be seen as responses to the needs of the collective unconscious at specific historical moments. Cultural figures in turn amplify the needs and desires of the collective and shape individual understandings in the current era and beyond. Rather than view archetypes as mystical constellations which are distant to our conventional lives, the chapter shows that archetypes permeate cultural life, and that archetypal forms change with the epoch and ethos as a result of unconscious needs that permeate society and culture. The unconscious needs of a culture or society are not separate from the individual but are expressed in the semiotic resources from which individuals know their world.