In this introductory volume, Simon Sheridan outlines a framework for understanding human nature that places the concept of the archetype at the centre of analysis. The model revolves around four primary archetypes inspired by the psychology of Carl Jung - the Child, the Orphan, the Adult, and the Elder. With these and just a few other core concepts, archetypology provides a succinct but powerful framework that expands the archetype concept beyond the psychological to integrate nominally discrete domains such as biology, anthropology, history, and literature. The result is a holistic account of human development centred around the pattern of the cycle-ending-in-transcendence.

The book includes several extended case studies that demonstrate the power of the model while also providing new insights into a set of diverse topics from Western history and culture, including the rise of modern feminism, the life of Martin Luther, the stories of Shakespeare, and the loss of the Elder archetype in the 20th century. Archetypology follows from another 20th-century trend, which was the desire for a holistic antidote to the endless ideological schisms of the modern world. As such, it can be seen in the same light as the work of Jan Smuts, Jean Gebser, Abraham Maslow, E.F. Schumacher, and Ken Wilber. However, archetypology is not a self-improvement system but a rigorous, concise, and powerful model of human nature that aims to give the reader a map by which to make sense of the world, a map which places humanity (the Human archetype) at the centre.

Gregory Bateson once wrote that humans think in stories. With archetypology, we go one step further and say that humans are stories.