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» Events » ANU College of Law PhD presentation: Collective consciousness and international lawANU College of Law PhD presentation: Collective consciousness and international law
This thesis argues that it is useful to approach the global community as a global collective consciousness or collective self. Adopting the 'sociology of human consciousness' approach of Burns et al, the thesis shows that the global collective consciousness operates as the public mind of the global community. In this way, the collective consciousness is understood as a social and reflective activity, formed through language, collective representations, institutional and cultural arrangements, self-conceptions, and self-reflectivity. The thesis also draws on the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung and post-Jungians to show that the collective consciousness consists of a conscious ego and unconscious material such as archetypes, fears, compulsions and defence mechanisms.
The thesis shows that the collective consciousness is subject to an evolutionary process towards the integration of the unconscious material. This process impels the consciousness towards wholeness, which is realised through the integration of unconscious material.
The integration process can be aided through:
- (i) A greater awareness of the role of the unconscious;
- (ii) An acknowledgment that all parts of the collective consciousness are necessary for our growth, and form an integrated whole; and
- (iii) Complex forms of collective reflectivity.
By way of case study, the thesis analyses the trajectory of women's rights recognition in international law. It explores the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the enforcement mechanisms in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1999) as evidence of collective reflectivity.
