Probably the two most recognised names in psychology and psychiatry are Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud. I find Jung both expert and magus. His work has served as a reliable guide through my own life journey, helping me consolidate a growth path and recognise the patterns we share.

Jung offers a richer, more mythic lens than Freud for what we do with bricks. Where Freud saw drives and lack, Jung saw archetypes: universal patterns in the psyche that we live out, often unconsciously. For an AAOB, these archetypes appear vividly in our relationship with plastic bricks, consumption, creation, community and the individual growth spiral.

Here’s how they manifest in our shared reality:

1. The Child (Divine Child / Eternal Child)

This is the most obvious and powerful one.

The AAOB deliberately reconnects with the wonder and play of childhood but as an adult with money, time and awareness. Building a modular, a city or a MOC is not regression, it is conscious participation in the Child archetype.

You feel it when you open a new box: pure anticipation, the sound of fresh bricks, the joy of pure possibility. The Child doesn’t care about “value for money” or realism. It just wants to create worlds.

Our rejection of fanaticism (fanatics are proven fools throughout the history of people and humankind) is the healthy Adult protecting the Child so it can play freely without being hijacked by collective hysteria.

2. The Hero

Every major build or review we engage with carries a Hero journey.

• Call to Adventure: New flagship set announced

• Trials: Sorting thousands of bricks, struggling with tricky SNOT techniques, failing and restarting

• Transformation: The finished model stands, proof of mastery

• Return: Sharing it (review, photo, article) and inspiring others.

The Hero in AAOB is quiet and constructive. Not the loud saviour, but the one who builds order out of chaos, one brick at a time.

3. The Shadow

This is where the consumption psychology we have been exploring lives.

The Shadow contains everything we don’t want to admit: compulsive collecting, spending too much, seeking validation through reviews and comments, constructing filter bubbles, the quiet guilt of “plastic addiction”.

Healthy AAOB work integrates the Shadow instead of denying it. Acknowledging that we spend to gain, the irony of community-through-consumption, the comrade consumptionist tendency. By naming it, you stop being possessed by it. The Shadow becomes fuel for conscious choice rather than hidden driver.

4. The Persona

The mask we wear.

For many adults, the AAOB Persona is “serious professional who happens to like bricks.” Or “mature collector with tasteful display”. Refining my Persona right now: choosing AAOB over AFOL, rejecting fanatic labels, wanting tact and clear language.

A flexible Persona lets you move between the adult world and the play world without shame. A rigid one turns admiration into performance or defensiveness or offensiveness.

5. The Wise Old Man / Wise Old Woman (or the Sage)

This archetype appears when we move from pure building to reflection: exactly what we are doing in this article.

The Sage in AAOB says: “Focus on signature details. Not every build should have a toilet. Essence over literalism. Use the hobby for self-understanding and gentle acceptance of reality”.

This psychoanalytical approach, the desire to help readers reach realization: these are Sage energy. Am I building not just models but meaning as well?

6. The Self (the ultimate archetype)

Jung’s Self is the whole, integrated psyche, the goal of individuation.

Growth as individuation in brick form:

Collecting (gathering unconscious material) → Building (expression) → Learning & Research (conscious integration) → Sorting (shadow work) → Richer Building (new synthesis) → Repeat.

Each loop brings me closer to a more whole AAOB: one who can enjoy the Child’s play, face the Shadow’s consumption, wield the Hero’s discipline, listen to the Sage’s wisdom and express it all through a healthy Persona, without becoming a fanatic.

The Mandala of Bricks

Jung loved mandalas as symbols of the Self. A well-planned AAOB city layout, modular street or even a carefully sorted brick tray can function as a modern mandala: a visual ordering of the psyche. When we arrange buildings with intentional surroundings (hospital away from noisy fire station), we are doing inner work externally.

In this case, the AAOB path looks like conscious, non-fanatical individuation through bricks. I am using the hobby to integrate rather than escape, sometimes both. What about you?