Oedipus as a Scapegoat in Oedipus the KingThe great psychologist-philosopher Carl Jung was briefly a student of Freud. Because Jung believed that Freud's approach to psychoanalysis was far too narrow, he discontinued his teachings and made significant contributions to mythological criticism. Jung's greatest contribution was his theory of archetypes. His proposal of archetypes holds that there is an original pattern or model of all things of the same kind. According to Jung, beneath the personal unconscious there is a collective unconscious that is part of the psychic inheritance of all human beings. Jung thought of the collective unconscious as a sort of memory bank that stores images and ideas that human beings have accumulated over the course of evolution. This theory of Jung supports other theories that claim that human beings are born with instincts. "The mind does not arise as a tabula rasa [tabula rasa]. Like the body, it has its own pre-established individual definitiveness; that is, forms of behavior. They manifest themselves in the ever-recurring patterns of psychic functioning" (Guerin 175). It is important to realize that archetypes are not inherited ideas or thought patterns, but rather that they are inclinations to respond similarly to certain stimuli (Guerin 175-178). A predominant archetype in mythological criticism is the sacrificial scapegoat. In Sophocles' play Oedipus Tyrannus, the sacrificial scapegoat archetype is carried forward by Oedipus as he solves the impossible riddle of the sphinx, frees Thebes from a horrible plague, and then takes his mother's hand in marriage. As depicted in Oedipus Tyrannus, the sacrificial scapegoat is "representative of the deity whose death is foreordained as the work...... middle of paper......in of Laius to free the city from its horrible plague. Through his quest brings Oedipus to self-discovery, revealing aspects of himself that had never crossed his mind. It is here that Oedipus must face and learn to accept the truths about his childhood, his father's killing, and his own marriage to his mother, despite these. the truths are terrifying to face. Eventually Oedipus scratches his eyes and then leaves the city of Thebes to wander aimlessly until his death New York: Routledge, 1992. Guerin, Wilford L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979. Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrant. New York: Norton, 1970. Vickery, John B. Myths and lyrics: State of Louisiana UP, 1983.