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In this exploration of the concept of archetype Stevens uses an approach which, like Jung's theory of archetypes, encompasses the biological, the mediation of the interpersonal and the intrapersonal, the socio/cultural, the political and aspects of the numinous and the spiritual. To cover such a spectrum is a mammoth task but the breadth and depth of Stevens’ book results in an expansive and creative exploration of human nature and, as designated in the title, a natural history of the self. This is an updated version of the original text published in 1982, a time when the integration of these ideas was still in its infancy.
Stevens has added an updated section to the end of each chapter. Although, in some ways, something is lost by not integrating the update into the text of the chapter, it does allow the reader to grasp the basic theme of each chapter and then go on to consider what has been written and discovered since. The book is divided into 3 sections: ‘Archetypes in Theory’, ‘Archetypes in Practice’, and ‘Synthesis and Integration’. Each section has its own focus, but inevitably the themes run throughout the book so that explorations of biological and physiological propensities to patterning experience, which appear in the first section, are returned to in the third, when Stevens discusses research findings in relation to brain structure and neuroscience.
Throughout, Stevens links his exploration of archetypes with research, findings and reflections from other disciplines. In Part 1 he makes use of findings from ethology, genetics, biology, evolutionary psychiatry and the like in a way that amplifies and explores the physiological nature of the self and its expression. Stevens’ implicit thesis is that it is the biological links which make Jung's ideas credible and he comments that, ‘the archetype, as Jung conceived it, is a precondition of and coexistent with life itself; its manifestations reach not only upwards to the spiritual heights of religion, art and me