Halloween Symbols and Their Psychological Meaning

Halloween is perhaps the most peculiar holiday of the fall season. It coincides with the end of the harvest, a celebration that was later incorporated by the Church as All Saints’ Day, honoring all martyrs and saints. In Ireland and Scotland, however, Celtic traditions surrounding the end of the harvest, traditionally known as Samhain, are closely linked to the way All Hallows’ Eve is celebrated today. For instance, early Irish manuscripts, such as the Acallam na Senórach (Colloquy of the Ancients), describe gatherings and supernatural encounters with monsters during Samhain. Irish folklore also includes costumes designed to confuse wandering souls and carved turnips or beets creating ghostly faces. Immigration from Scotland and Ireland to the United States during the 19th century brought these traditions to the New World, gradually evolving into the Halloween celebrations familiar today.

For the purposes of this article, we will analyze the possible psychological meanings behind common Halloween symbols and paraphernalia.

1. Ghosts: Neurosis and Guilt
   In Irish folklore, ghosts are wandering souls and wearing a costume could protect oneself from their influence. Psychologically, ghosts can symbolize guilt and regret. They often appear when an injustice has occurred, reminding the observer to address unresolved issues. The act of doing and undoing, reflected in ghostly encounters, represents a classic defense mechanism for managing guilt.
2. Costumes: The Persona
   Originally used to confuse wandering spirits, costumes also symbolize the projection of the self to the outside world. In Jungian terms, the persona represents how we present ourselves in society, concealing the shadow or hidden aspects of the self.
3. Witches: The Shadow and the Trickster
   Witches are associated with behaviors considered unacceptable, including profane sexuality, use of hallucinogens, and dealings with the Devil. They symbolize the shadow—that’s to say, those desires and behaviors within ourselves that remain unacknowledged. Archetypically, witches embody the trickster, appearing when the ego becomes rigid or excessively moral, introducing chaos and forcing confrontation with repressed material. In psychedelic phenomenology, the trickster often manifests during intense experiences, such as with N,N-Dimethyltryptamine.
4. Skeletons: Death Anxiety
   Skeletons symbolize death and mortality, archetypal themes in the collective unconscious. Medieval literature depicted ghosts and skeletons as reminders of mortality, a memento mori. Awareness of death can provoke fear, but it also encourages reflection on life and motivates us to fulfill our purpose while living.
5. Black Cats: The Unconscious
   Black cats are both appealing and feared, symbolizing superstition and the unknown. Like the unconscious, they are mysterious, enigmatic, and not fully understood, representing hidden or rejected aspects of ourselves.
6. Vampires: Repressed Sexuality
   Vampires, such as Dracula, often embody erotic archetypes. They are attractive figures who seduce in the night, symbolizing repressed sexual desires and the allure of forbidden impulses.
7. Monsters: Thanatos
   Monsters represent the instinctual drive toward destruction, or Thanatos, in contrast to Eros. They externalize aggressive drives, allowing a symbolic engagement with the tension between our primal instincts and moral values.
8. Spiderwebs: Interconnectedness
   Spiderwebs remind us of the interconnectedness of all things. Psychologically, they symbolize how behaviors, events, and emotions can be linked in ways that are not immediately apparent. Insight in psychotherapy often reveals these hidden connections across a lifetime of experiences.
9. The Full Moon: The Anima
   The moon symbolizes the feminine archetype, encompassing intuition, receptivity, and emotional depth. Jung emphasized exploring one’s inner feminine qualities and the connection with the divine feminine (the anima) regardless of our own gender, to achieve psychological wholeness like a full moon.
10. Jack-o’-Lantern: The Divine
    The light within a carved turnip or pumpkin symbolizes the Divine, which Jung referred to as the Big Self. The lantern illuminates the path forward, guiding the individual on the journey of individuation and fostering a sense of connection to a higher, spiritual consciousness.

Dr Forcen is the medical director for McLean’s Depression Residential Treatment Program located at the Lincoln Residence, focusing on innovative depression treatments. He is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the creator of the psycho-podcast “El último humanista” of The Journal of Humanistic Psychiatry.