Joseph Heller is remembered mainly for Catch-22, but his other works focusing on the lives of various members of the middle class are no more than excellent but the vivid examples of modern satire。Many writers and readers are influenced by his works。 

2。 Literature Review

     Catch-22 has received widespread attention since it is published。 At present, scholars mainly focus on two aspects。 One is about the research on black humor。 Scholars stress more on the cause, artistic techniques, absurd notions, life attitudes, and thoughts of black humor。 In 2001, Guo Jide in his “Black humor and Joseph Heller” mainly talks about the style of black humor in Catch-22。 In 2003, Zhang Juan, from two angles of structure and language, discusses the artistic techniques applied in the novel and the absurd reality in Heller’s era in her “The Art of the Absurd in Catch-22”。 In 2004, Liu Yujuan’s article “On Ideology and Arts in Catch-22” lays emphasis on artistic techniques of black humor in Catch-22, which are totally different from works of other styles。 In 2005, Shi Xiaohui treats the features of black humor, taking Catch-22 as an example in “The Model of Black Humor-Catch-22”。 In 2006, Xue Yufeng explores its unique artistic form of style in “Deviation in Catch-22”。 In 2007, Zhang Hao emphasizes on language of black humor in his essay “On the Linguistic Representations of Black Humor in Catch-22” and his purpose is to state that the turn of the language helps to shape an irrational world。

     The other is about the text itself。 The theme, structural analysis, narrative strategies, arts of language, symbolism, racialism and analysis of characters of the novel are all studied。 In 2005, Jin Haiyun probes into Yossarian’s anti-hero image in her article “The ‘Crazy’ Sober-an Analysis of Yossarian in Catch-22”。 In 2006, Zhao Lihua and Shi Jian discuss the racial politics behind Catch-22 in their “Joseph Heller’s racial dilemma in Catch-22”。 In the same year, Gao Yu probes into characters’ symbolic meaning in the novel in his “The Symbolic Meaning of Characters in Catch-22”。 In 2008, Liu Juan’s paper “Fragmentation, Spiral and Repetition--Brief Comments on Narrative Features of Catch-22” mainly talks about its fragmentary and anti-traditional narration。 In 2011, Ma Juling in her “Misused Reference and A Changing Self: A Perspective of Character Construct in Catch-22” studies the living situation of modern people and the problem of self-identity。

     The difference between this thesis and the previous lies in that it uses the special perspective “the collective unconscious” to discuss how characters in Catch-22 are influenced under such a notion。 The thesis aims to develop people’s awareness of the collective unconscious and its effect on human thoughts and actions in order to promote people’s healthy development。 Apart from this, the paper intends to offer a new research perspective on study of Catch-22。文献综述

3。 Carl Jung’s Theory of the Collective Unconscious and Study of Significance

An introduction to the formation of the collective unconscious

     As we know, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the most famous Austrian neurologist advances the concept of the unconscious and human’s psyche is made up of the unconscious, the conscious and the preconscious。 The unconscious might be defined as that part of the mind which gets rise to a collection of mental phenomena。

     Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology sees Freud’s theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negativeand develops the concept further。 Jung suggests that the psyche is composed of three components: the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious。 According to Jung, the ego represents the conscious mind while the personal unconscious contains memories, including those that have been suppressed。 The collective unconscious is a unique component in which Jung believes that this part of the psyche serves as a form of psychological inheritance。 It contains all of the knowledge and experience we share as a species。