The Collective Consciousness of the Albanian People: A Jungian Analysis of Skanderbeg

Gjergj Kastrioti depicted as the Prince of Albania and Epirus in a 1602 portrait by the Flemish artist Dominicus Custos.

When one thinks of a national symbol, their mind might immediately hone in on the flag, standard or coat of arms of a particular nation-state. Others will think of an ideal: civic duty, political participation, liberty and natural rights. Many more will yet focus on the heroes of said country, best exemplified by figures like George Washington of the United States and Simón Bolívar of several states in South America, who through sheer willpower and genius led their respective peoples to self-determination and independence.

There is one man in history, however, who particularly stands out and holds his own even amongst giants such as Washington. Gjergj Kastrioti, better known to the world as Skënderbeu or Skanderbeg, the 15th-century Albanian leader who resisted the Ottoman Empire for well over two decades, occupies a singular place not only in the chronicles and archives of military history but in the collective unconscious of his people. The figure of Gjergj Kastrioti transcends the pages of biography; it is symbolic and psychological, expressing the soul of the Albanian nation long before the romantic nationalism of the 18th and 19th centuries took hold of the European continent.

As the eminent 20th-century psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961) argued, groups of people possess a psyche much like individuals; a collective mind filled with archetypes that give substantial form and meaning to their experiences throughout history. In this view, Kastrioti is not merely a historical military leader but a psychic manifestation of the Albanian people themselves.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, credited as the father of analytical psychology, pictured here in the mid-1930s.

Jung was born in Switzerland into a Swiss Reformed family, with this religious upbringing influencing his later ideas on the psychology of faith. Early in his career, he would come under the tutelage of the famous founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Jung and Freud would later split, however, owing to their divergent understandings of the unconscious mind: Freud argued for sexual drive fueling the activity of the unconscious, while Jung proposed a deeper, more spiritual and symbolic conception of the psyche structured by archetypes and the collective unconscious.

Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious extends beyond the individual to encompass entire peoples and cultures, suggesting that every nation carries within it a deep, inherited pool of shared psychic patterns and symbolic memory. As Jung puts it, “a symbol is the best possible expression for something unknown” (Jung, Collected Works 6, section 817). To further this point, he distinguished signs and symbols, understanding the former as substitutes for things already known. This collective aspect of the mind contains a distinctive layout that is shaped by a people’s historical traumas, environment and spiritual development.

For Jung, the mind contains archetypes: primordial images such as the Hero, the Mother, the Self or the Shadow. These symbols allow for manifestation into substance and worldly practices, surfacing in a people’s legends and rituals, and revealing how ethnic communities understand their identity. Jung’s insights help explain why figures like Skënderbeu endure as living symbols, and how his legacy in particular reveals that the Albanian people possessed a conscious sense of their distinct identity prior to the rise of the modern, Enlightenment-driven ideological frameworks which led to nationalism.

The symbolically rich helmet of Skënderbeu, famously adorned with a goat’s head.

The Historical Skënderbeu

Gjergj Kastrioti was born around 1405 into the Kastrioti family, an Albanian noble house whose domains were centered in the mountainous interior of the Dibra region. The house’s patrimony laid between powerful neighbors: Venice, Hungarian and Serbian dynasties and the expansionist Ottomans. As was common for Christian elites in the region, Gjon Kastrioti sent Gjergj and two of his brothers into the Devşirme system, which forced noble families to hand over young Christian boys as hostages to the Ottoman court as guarantees of loyalty to the Empire. Gjergj would spend crucial developmental years within the Ottoman system, where he received military training and would convert, at least nominally, to Islam. It is here that, having risen rapidly through the ranks, he received the sobriquet “İskender Bey” for his military prowess, meaning “Lord Alexander” in reference to Alexander the Great – over time, he became known to Albanians as Skënderbeu.

In 1443,  the Ottomans were facing major setbacks in the Balkans. During the failed Battle of Nish against John Hunyadi’s crusaders, Gjergj deserted the Ottomans, along with his nephew Hamza Kastrioti and around 300 Albanians, to reclaim the city of Kruja, formerly ruled by his father. In March 1444, he would take the helm of the League of Lezha, a confederation of predominantly Albanian princes that coordinated diplomacy, defense and military operations against Ottoman expansion. For the next 24 years, he would sustain war against a vastly larger empire, often outnumbered in battles won through strategy and knowledge of the terrain. Kastrioti would convert to Catholicism, negotiate with Naples and the Papacy to maintain his campaign, create a state-structure with himself at the helm, and lead a life of resistance until his fateful death by malaria in 1468.

Skënderbeu’s victory over the Ottoman forces led by Ibrahim Pasha at the Battle of Polog, 1453. The depiction comes from a 16th-century engraving by the Swiss-German artist Jost Amman.

The Archetypal Psychology Beneath

The significance of Skënderbeu stretches beyond his political and military achievements and into the psychological realm. Jung’s psychology offers a powerful lens for understanding how figures like Kastrioti become living symbols in a people’s psyche. Jung’s idea of individuation – the unification of conscious and unconscious elements into a whole Self – can also be applied to a nation, whose symbols and heroes maintain its collective identity and psychological balance. In Jung’s view, “outer” history is the visible symptom of inner, psychological processes. To further this idea, he asks rhetorically in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious: “What is the fate of great nations but a summation of the psychic changes in individuals?”

Skënderbeu best embodies the Hero and Self archetypes theorized by Jung, whose transformative, individuating journey mirrors the idea of the Hero. His Ottoman captivity and defection demonstrate separation and return, while his campaigns and alliances represent the struggles through which dissolution gives way to the integration of the Self: the forging of unity from division, both within himself and the Albanian people, whom he has come to represent.

Put simply, Kastrioti’s campaigns against the Ottoman Empire were not merely physical, but existential battles with the Shadow archetype of the Albanian people: the threat of extinction, submission and loss of cultural autonomy. Each victory of his reaffirmed independence and selfhood. His alliances and diplomatic prowess, particularly through the League of Lezha, symbolize the integration of regional identities into an Albanian “whole” – a unification of the “many” into “one” through shared language, blood and experience. These events, as well as the concept of unification, strongly align with Jungian individuation, in which divided parts are joined in the psyche. Kastrioti’s defiance, even if short-lived in the grand sweep of history, replicates how the conscious mind resists against the forces of chaos and destruction. For Albanians, Skënderbeu is that idea incarnate.

For Jung, symbols are never stagnant. They come about when collective experiences shoot past the limits of articulation. These symbols emerge from the unconscious to restore psychic balance in times of need. National symbols are not mere inventions, but revelations; manifestations of a people’s buried desires seeking form and meaning. Skënderbeu has endured in the Albanian national memory for this reason: his image acted as a nucleus when Albanians were denied political rights, especially in the early stages of the Rilindja, or the Albanian National Renaissance (roughly 1878-1912). His emblems – the double-headed eagle and the goat-adorned helmet – take the role of what Jung referred to as mandalas: organizing, centralizing images through which the soul recognizes and stabilizes itself. In his book Answer to Job, Jung reaches an epiphany, stating that he “saw that… the mandala is the center … the path to the center … to individuation.” Jung would see the objects associated with Kastrioti as prime icons that effectively pave the way for stable identity formation.

This brings us to one of the most fascinating aspects of Kastrioti’s symbolic power: his transcendence of religious boundaries. A common misconception in European scholarship is the view of Skënderbeu’s career as simply Christian resistance to the expansion of Ottoman Islam. The reality is more complex and, as it relates to Jungian thought, more revealing. Medieval Albanian society was much more plural and fluid in matters of faith; conversion was a political and pragmatic tool among the peasantry and nobility as much as a matter of belief. Kastrioti himself was raised in an Orthodox environment, converted to Islam through his service to the Ottomans and would later be recognized as a Champion of Christ (Athleta Christi) by the Papacy, for his contributions and Catholic alliances.

Kastrioti’s veneration by Albanians of all faiths testifies to the deeper function of reconciling opposites and achieving psychic wholeness, as this transcendence of belief sustains psychological and cultural needs. Jung, being highly interested in religion and how it affects the psyche of individuals and collectives, would certainly admire the Albanian volksgeist, or spirit of a people. This unity displays that the collective unconscious of Albanians developed to be strong and integrated enough to contain multiple spiritual expressions without the fragmentation of the mind. This is a sign of deep psychic coherence. Though fringe groups of Albanians have begun advocating for a religiously homogeneous nation-state in the last few years – whether Christian or Muslim – there can be no doubt that Skënderbeu acts as an anchor that stabilizes the Albanian identity more effectively than the standard model in Europe, which tends to conflate national and religious belonging.

The shared substrate of unity seen here certainly draws from older, pagan archetypes of Albanian identity. As such, Kastrioti endures as the living vessel of Albania’s oldest ideals: besa and nder, (oath-giving and honor) both concepts solidified in the actions of Skënderbeu as well as in tangible form in the tribal code, the Kanun. These principles form the psychic grammar of the Albanian people; the former being the inviolable word of trust and the latter one’s measure of dignity. They come together to form moral laws that tie individuals into a shared ethnic totality. In the Jungian context, they function as agents of integration. Kastrioti’s leadership, then, made this ancient ethic political, with a savant-like ability to unite the Albanian tribes and noble families under a common cause, thus signing a metaphysical national covenant.

Members of the Assembly of Vlora in 1912, the last committee of the Albanian Rilindja leading up to independence.

This understanding challenges the idea that the Albanian identity is purely a 19th-century invention of the Rilindja movement. The constructivist theory of nationalism – the idea that ethnic identities are formed as social constructs through political and cultural practices – argues that nations are a product of the modern age and fabricated through capitalism, bureaucracy and political need. This theory falls short in its inability to account for the depth and resolve of pre-modern symbols such as Skënderbeu. His letter to the prince of Taranto, as well as communication with other Italian nobles, demonstrates this pre-modern resolve and awareness of a collective ethnic identity. Notable here are his statements framing Albanians as the descendants of the Macedonians and Epirotes, rightful heirs to the glories of Alexander the Great and Pyrrhus.

Moreover, the oral traditions, epic poetry and folk songs of the Albanian people, which have survived through centuries of foreign subjugation – whether Roman, Slav, or Ottoman – bear evidence of continuous self-recognition. Albanian identity thus aligns more with a primordialist framework: the idea that ethnic identities are broadly fixed, innate and ancient rather than socially constructed over time. In the Albanian case, the theory is best represented by tribal genealogies and linguistics. This is exemplified by a folkloric song of the Arbërëshë community – Albanians who fled to Italy to escape Ottoman rule after the death of Kastrioti – collected by the noted folklorist Jeronim De Rada, an Arbërësh himself.

The text, referred to as "Scanderbeg’s Marriage" describes the latter’s marriage to Donika Arianiti, an Albanian noblewoman from the prominent Arianti family. It portrays Kastrioti’s friends proposing that he marry a bride from powerful foreign allies, such as Naples or Taranto. He is instead portrayed scolding them and refusing, going on to state:

Albanian, I want the girl,

by the language and the customs.

Thus, you misters, if you’d like,

to Arianit’s palace,

we will send request to the lady,

to Donika Marianetza!

This and other evidence associated with Gjergj Kastrioti demonstrate a deep-rooted articulation of collective memory and belonging to an ancestral homeland and tradition. Though folk songs cannot be expected to demonstrate objective truths in all cases, the existence of a message subtly urging listeners to marry within their ethnic group, using the heroic figure of Skënderbeu as a prominent example, presents a commonly held opinion on how to preserve the Albanian people, and frames this preservation as crucial.

At the same time, Jung argues that symbols must evolve, as they can possess the very people who venerate them if taken too literally. This can lead to fanaticism and the risk of being consumed by the archetype. As such, Kastrioti’s symbolic power depends on conscious partaking rather than blind devotion. His image needs to remain a living symbol, one that facilitates self-reflection rather than idol-worship.

This aspect urges Albanians to confront their collective modern Shadow – the disowned, suppressed and rejected parts of the psyche: corruption, division, and the competition between modernity and tradition. Kastrioti’s figure has often been put into the service of ideology, such as through religious rhetoric or for the purposes of various regimes, ranging from Zogu’s monarchy to the Communists. Instead, a mature national consciousness must hold both truths in balance: Skënderbeu as the image of unity and dignity, and as a figure whose excesses must be demythologized. Remaining faithful to a symbol’s meaning does not mean to keep it frozen in time, but to allow it to grow and adapt alongside the people defined by it.

Vlad Țepeș of Wallachia, contemporary of Gjergj Kastrioti and national archetype of the Romanian people.

The Romanian and Serbian Analogues

To understand what makes Skënderbeu psychologically distinct, it is useful to compare him first to Vlad Țepeș Dracula of Wallachia, as both emerged as figures in the conflict between European peoples and the encroaching Ottomans. However, their archetypes differ in the way they ruled. Dracula aligns most closely with the archetype of the Terrible Father, a ruler who preserves order through severity. He represents a psychic need for purification and survival in the battle against external forces. The Romanian collective unconscious – haunted by centuries of invasion – projects onto Dracula moral preservation through imposing fear; not cruelty for its own sake but discipline in the midst of heavy ordeals. His myth integrates the Shadow through punishment, transforming violence into a symbol of resilience and endurance, evidenced by his struggle to preserve Wallachian independence through sheer, but arguably needed, brutality.

Kastrioti, as previously discussed, is the embodiment of the Self. He represents wholeness and inner sovereignty. His legend centers on ethics and loyalty rather than cruelty. Where Vlad Dracula’s archetype almost expels the Shadow and utilizes it pragmatically to its own ends, Skënderbeu’s figure integrates it fully. His charisma lies in unity and synthesis rather than domination. As for the Albanian people, Kastrioti’s story and archetype is not one of vengeance, but individuation: an inward and moral victory of identity preserved in the midst of existential threats.

In a different register, the comparison with Stefan Dušan of Serbia further illustrates how distinct Skënderbeu’s psychological symbolism remains. Dušan represents what Jung would define as the Ruler archetype, the assertion of the collective ego’s dominance through order and hierarchy. His empire and legal code reflect a desire to integrate all under law, laying out visions to be achieved through structured institutions. Yet, as Jung might caution, this archetype can become overextended, and risks identifying wholeness too closely with rigid control.

By contrast, Skënderbeu’s archetype is turned inward rather than being defined through imperial means. It seeks coherence and survival rather than expansion. While Dušan projected unity outward through empire, Kastrioti's figure embodies it internally through dignity and solidarity with his countrymen. Psychologically, Dušan’s myth depicts the aspiration for collective structure and permanence, while Skënderbeu’s reflects the resilience of conscience and the survival of one’s people. Ultimately, Dušan’s archetype seeks to bind the world under law, while Kastrioti’s archetype seeks wholeness of one’s own shared identity through fidelity.

Conclusion

Viewed through the work of  Jung, Skënderbeu and the archetypes he represents reveal how history can serve as a mirror to the collective psyche rather than as a simple sequences of events. This framework allows us to see national heroes, values and symbols as expressions of a people’s unconscious searching for unity and self-comprehension. In this sense, Kastrioti is not just the leader of a historical resistance, but also the Albanian Self in the process of individuation. This unique view of history reveals that the endurance of such figures is more than a political memory from the distant past; it represents the determination of a nation’s will and the everlasting dialogue between old and new.

Valton Vuçitërna is a second-year student studying Finance at Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business. Valton was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan to parents from Kosova. He is the founder of The Anadrini Project, a database designed to record the histories and genetics of families in Kosova's region of Anadrini, as well as the history of the town of Rahovec. He is interested in European history and the cultural heritage of the Albanian people.