Innocent
FreedomPure of Heart
- Desire
- To feel safe and keep believing that the world is fundamentally good
- Fear
- Doing something wrong and being blamed for it
- Gift
- Helping people lower their guard and taking the edge out of a tense room
The Innocent is one of twelve archetypes organized around ideas from Jung’s archetype theory, with a central desire for safety and trust in the world and a fear of doing wrong. Its gift is creating an atmosphere where people can lower their guard.
What drives you
You may be looking for the feeling that things are still all right. That there is still reason to trust the world.
When one person starts blaming another, the hostility in the room can affect you before you have even decided who is right. A troubling news story may stay with you for the rest of the day.
For the Innocent, doing something wrong can be harder to bear than being blamed. What hurts is no longer being able to tell yourself that you have done nothing wrong. Without quite deciding to, you try to do the right thing: be straightforward, avoid needless conflict, and leave people unharmed.
Others may call that naive. Yet being able to trust a world that can disappoint you is a strength. You may still hold on to a faith that many people have let go of.
Seeking independence and meaning: how this motive shows up
- When this motive becomes a strength
- People can feel a little safer around you. You naturally make room for them to be less guarded and less sharp with each other. When suspicion starts spreading, you may be the person who says, “I don’t think that’s who they are.”
- When this motive becomes a burden
- You can talk yourself out of noticing something uncomfortable. Even with a nagging sense that something is off, you tell yourself they surely meant no harm and let it pass. The ability to trust can sit very close to the willingness not to look.
- At work
- You make a difference in places where people easily become suspicious of one another. Constant maneuvering and competing interests, though, can wear you down. Even if you are good at work that requires outwitting someone, you may not like how you feel afterward.
- In relationships
- Your willingness to believe your partner can become deep trust. Taking every word at face value, however, can leave you unaware of what has not been said. When they say everything is fine, leaving room to check once more can help protect you, too.
- When it turns into shadow
- Trust becomes avoidance when you know there is a problem but keep saying it will work out, waiting for someone else to handle it. Remaining innocent can become a way to stay clear of responsibility.
Archetypes that share this direction
120 Archetypes types with a similar direction
These are not one-to-one matches. Read them as types that point in a similar direction.
So how does it show up in what you do?
You now know your "why": what you seek and what you fear.In 120 Archetypes, the types whose reactions come closest to the Innocent motive are Herbalist and Weaver.But the same motive shows up differently in each person's actions.30 questions show how your motive actually plays out.Where the two don't line up, your real challenge starts to come into view.
See the Herbalist archetype →See the Weaver archetype →Find out how you act →
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Which archetype are you closest to?
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Start the free test →This is not a psychological test created by Carl Jung. It is an interpretive profile independently designed by 120 Archetypes, drawing on Jung’s archetype theory and the twelve-category framework organized by Carol S. Pearson and Margaret Mark. It is not intended for clinical diagnosis or scientifically validated measurement.