Primitive

1. Etymology

Primitive describes the original or undifferentiated human psyche. Related: archaic; primordial (Jung’s sense).

2. Plain summary

Jung uses “primitive” as primordial—not a value judgment. A vestige of that state need not end; it may endure as long as humanity lasts.

Samuels (primitives): Jung’s Africa travel as meeting the unrepressed counterpart within himself; fieldwork informing residues of primitivity in modern persons; collective projection before alchemy; subjectivity granted scientific status; meeting collective vs individuated life in the flesh. Related redirects: loss of soul, mana personalities, participation mystique, pleroma, religion.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common primitive motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
primordial / undifferentiated psyche; no value judgment; enduring vestige; modern residues; analogic thinking / symbol respect; fieldwork as inner encounter; dual-stamp archaic; Samuels primitives cluster.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology primitive is primordial psyche without pejorative ranking—CW 8 ¶218. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4. Prefer CW 8 ¶218.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Primitive. Descriptive of the original, or undifferentiated, human psyche. (See also archaic.) I use the term "primitive" in the sense of "primordial," and... do not imply any kind of value judgment. … I see no reason why [a vestige of a primitive state] should not endure as long as humanity lasts.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 8 ¶218 in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — primitives pp. 112–113

primitives … His preoccupation with the world of so-called 'primitives' … all inform Jung's statements about the psychological residues of primitivity in modern man. … The psychological image of the primitive coincides with his conceptualisation of emerging CONSCIOUSNESS in an individual.

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986/2013, pp. 112–113)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

I would like to take this opportunity to remark that I use the term "primitive" in the sense of "primordial," and that I do not imply any kind of value judgment. Also, when I speak of a "vestige" of a primitive state, I do not necessarily mean that this state will sooner or later come to an end. On the contrary, I see no reason why it should not endure as long as humanity lasts.
(Jung, 1934/1969, CW 8, p. 146, ¶218) Dual archaic ARCH-1–2 untouched.

See also: archaic; participation-mystique; loss-of-soul; mana-personality; collective; unconscious.

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). A review of the complex theory. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, p. 146, ¶218). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1934)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.