Anima and animus... unconscious masculine side of a woman, and the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man, each transcending the personal psyche

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For the album by The Creatures, see Anima Animus.
The anima and animus are described in Carl Jung's school of analytical psychology as part of his theory of the collective unconscious. Jung described the animus as the unconscious masculine side of a woman, and the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man, each transcending the personal psyche. Jung's theory states that the anima and animus are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind, as opposed to the theriomorphic and inferior function of the shadow archetypes. He believed they are the abstract symbol sets that formulate the archetype of the Self.

In Jung's theory, the anima makes up the totality of the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a man possesses and the animus the masculine ones possessed by a woman. He did not believe they were an aggregate of father or mother, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, or teachers, though these aspects of the personal unconscious can influence a person's anima or animus.

Jung believed a male's sensitivity is often lesser or repressed, and therefore considered the anima one of the most significant autonomous complexes. Jung believed the anima and animus manifest themselves by appearing in dreams and influence a person's attitudes and interactions with the opposite sex. A natural understanding of another member of the opposite sex is instilled in individuals that stems from constant subjection to members of the opposite sex. This instilment leads to the development of the anima and animus.[1] Jung said that "the encounter with the shadow is the 'apprentice-piece' in the individual's development ... that with the anima is the 'masterpiece'".[2] Jung viewed the anima process as being one of the sources of creative ability. In his book The Invisible Partners, John A. Sanford said that the key to controlling one's anima/animus is to recognize it when it manifests and exercise our ability to discern the anima/animus from reality.[3]

Contents
1Origin
1.1Anima
1.2Animus
2Levels of anima development
2.1Eve - Object of desire, provider of nourishment, security and love
2.2Helen - Worldly achiever, intelligent and talented
2.3Mary - Righteous and a paragon of virtue
2.4Sophia - Wise and fully human, equal and not at all an object
3Levels of animus development
3.1Tarzan - Man of mere physical power
3.2Byron - Man of action or romance
3.3Lloyd George - Man as a professor, clergyman, orator
3.4Hermes - Man as a spiritual guide
4Anima and animus compared
5Jungian cautions
6References
7Further reading
8External links
Origin
Anima
Anima originated from Latin, and was originally used to describe ideas such as breath, soul, spirit or vital force. Jung began using the term in the early 1920s to describe the inner feminine side of men.[4]

Animus
Animus originated from Latin, where it was used to describe ideas such as the rational soul, life, mind, mental powers, courage or desire.[5] In the early nineteenth century, animus was used to mean "temper" and was typically used in a hostile sense. In 1923, it began being used as a term in Jungian psychology to describe the masculine side of women.[5]

Levels of anima development
Jung believed anima development has four distinct levels, which in "The psychology of the transference" he named Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia. In broad terms, the entire process of anima development in a man is about the male subject opening up to emotionality, and in that way a broader spirituality, by creating a new conscious paradigm that includes intuitive processes, creativity and imagination, and psychic sensitivity towards himself and others where it might not have existed previously.[citation needed]

Eve - Object of desire, provider of nourishment, security and love
The first is Eve, named after the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. It deals with the emergence of a man's object of desire. The anima is completely tied up with woman as provider of nourishment, security and love.

The man at this anima level cannot function well without a woman, and is more likely to be controlled by her or, more likely, by his own imaginary construction of her. He is often impotent or has no sexual desire.[citation needed]

Helen - Worldly achiever, intelligent and talented
The second is Helen, an allusion to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology. In this phase, women are viewed as capable of worldly success and of being self-reliant, intelligent and insightful, even if not altogether virtuous. This second phase is meant to show a strong schism in external talents (cultivated business and conventional skills) with lacking internal qualities (inability for virtue, lacking faith or imagination).[citation needed]

Mary - Righteous and a paragon of virtue
The third phase is Mary, named after the Christian theological understanding of the Virgin Mary (Jesus' mother). At this level, women can now seem to possess virtue by the perceiving man (even if in an esoteric and dogmatic way), in as much as certain activities deemed consciously unvirtuous cannot be applied to her.[citation needed]

Sophia - Wise and fully human, equal and not at all an object
The fourth and final phase of anima development is Sophia, named after the Greek word for wisdom. Complete integration has now occurred, which allows women to be seen and related to as particular individuals who possess both positive and negative qualities. The most important aspect of this final level is that, as the personification "Wisdom" suggests, the anima is now developed enough that no single object can fully and permanently contain the images to which it is related.[citation needed]

Levels of animus development
Jung focused more on the man's anima and wrote less about the woman's animus. Jung believed that every woman has an analogous animus within her psyche, this being a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. He viewed the animus as being more complex than the anima, postulating that women have a host of animus images whereas the male anima consists only of one dominant image.

Jung stated that there are four parallel levels of animus development in a woman.[6]

Tarzan - Man of mere physical power
The animus "first appears as a personification of mere physical power - for instance as an athletic champion or muscle man, such as 'the fictional jungle hero Tarzan'".[7]

Byron - Man of action or romance
In the next phase, the animus "possesses initiative and the capacity for planned action...the romantic man - the 19th century British poet Byron; or the man of action - America's Ernest Hemingway, war hero, hunter, etc."[8]

Lloyd George - Man as a professor, clergyman, orator
In the third phase "the animus becomes the word, often appearing as a professor or clergyman...the bearer of the word - Lloyd George, the great political orator".[8]

Hermes - Man as a spiritual guide
"Finally, in his fourth manifestation, the animus is the incarnation of meaning. On this highest level he becomes (like the anima) a mediator of...spiritual profundity".[9] Jung noted that "in mythology, this aspect of the animus appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he is a helpful guide." Like Sophia, this is the highest level of mediation between the unconscious and conscious mind.[citation needed] In the book The Invisible Partners, John A. Sanford said that the key to controlling one's anima/animus is to recognize it when it manifests and exercise our ability to discern the anima/animus from reality.[3]

Anima and animus compared
The four roles are not identical with genders reversed. Jung believed that while the anima tended to appear as a relatively singular female personality, the animus may consist of a conjunction of multiple male personalities: "in this way the unconscious symbolizes the fact that the animus represents a collective rather than a personal element".[10]

The process of animus development deals with cultivating an independent and non-socially subjugated idea of self by embodying a deeper word (as per a specific existential outlook) and manifesting this word. To clarify, this does not mean that a female subject becomes more set in her ways (as this word is steeped in emotionality, subjectivity, and a dynamism just as a well-developed anima is) but that she is more internally aware of what she believes and feels, and is more capable of expressing these beliefs and feelings. Thus the "animus in his most developed form sometimes...make[s] her even more receptive than a man to new creative ideas".[11]

Both final stages of animus and anima development have dynamic qualities (related to the motion and flux of this continual developmental process), open-ended qualities (there is no static perfected ideal or manifestation of the quality in question), and pluralistic qualities (which transcend the need for a singular image, as any subject or object can contain multiple archetypes or even seemingly antithetical roles). They also form bridges to the next archetypal figures to emerge, as "the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form, representing the Self".[12]

Jung's theory of anima and animus draws from his theory of individuation. In order for a person to reach the goal of individuation is to engage in a series of intrapersonal dialogues which help the person understand how he or she relates to the world. This process requires men and women to become aware of their anima or animus respectively, in so doing the individual will learn how not to be controlled by their anima or animus. As individuals are made aware of their anima or animus, it allows them to overcome thoughts of who they ought to be and accept themselves for who they really are. According to Jung, individuals can discover a bridge to the collective unconscious through the development of their anima or animus. The anima and the animus represent the unconscious. The anima and animus are not gender specific and men and women can have both, however, more empirical research is required to determine whether both men and women do possess both archetypes. [13]

Jungian cautions
Jungians warned that "every personification of the unconscious - the shadow, the anima, the animus, and the Self - has both a light and a dark aspect....the anima and animus have dual aspects: They can bring life-giving development and creativeness to the personality, or they can cause petrification and physical death".[14]

One danger was of what Jung termed "invasion" of the conscious by the unconscious archetype - "Possession caused by the anima...bad taste: the anima surrounds herself with inferior people".[15] Jung insisted that "a state of anima possession...must be prevented. The anima is thereby forced into the inner world, where she functions as the medium between the ego and the unconscious, as does the persona between the ego and the environment".[16]

Alternatively, over-awareness of the anima or animus could provide a premature conclusion to the individuation process - "a kind of psychological short-circuit, to identify the animus at least provisionally with wholeness".[17] Instead of being "content with an intermediate position", the animus seeks to usurp "the self, with which the patient's animus identifies. This identification is a regular occurrence when the shadow, the dark side, has not been sufficiently realized".[17]

References
Ewen, Robert B. (2003). An Introduction to the Theories of Personality. Taylor & Francis. p. 66. ISBN 9780805843569.
Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens On Jung (London 1990) p. 206
Sandford, John A. The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships, 1980, Paulist Press, N.Y.
"The definition of anima". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
"The definition of animus". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
Jung, Carl. The Psychology of the Unconscious, Dvir Co., Ltd., Tel-Aviv, 1973 (originally 1917)
M.-L. von Franz, "The Process of Individuation" in Carl Jung ed., Man and his Symbols (London 1978) p. 205-6
von Franz, "Process" p. 205-6
von Franz, "Process" p. 206-7
von Franz, Process p. 206
von Franz, Process p. 207
von Franz, Process p. 207-8
K., Papadopoulos, Renos (2012). The Handbook of Jungian Psychology : Theory, Practice and Applications. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-48078-3. OCLC 817888854.
von Franz, "Process" in Jung, Symbols p. 234
C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (London 1996) p. 124
C. G. Jung, Alchemical Studies (London 1978) p. 180
Jung, Alchemical p. 268
Further reading
The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships by John A. Sanford (Paperback – Jan 1, 1979).
External links
Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism website
Sample image with scholarly commentary: Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux
Jung on the anima and animus
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Carl Jung
Theories
Analytical psychologyCognitive functionsInterpretation of religionPersonality typeSynchronicityTheory of neurosis
Concepts
The psyche
Anima and animusCollective unconsciousComplexElectra complexInner childPersonal unconsciousPersonaSelfShadow
Jungian archetypes
ApolloTricksterWise Old Man and Wise Old WomanWounded healer
Other
Active imaginationEnantiodromiaExtraversion and introversionIndividuationParticipation mystique
Publications
Early
Psychology of the Unconscious (1912)Psychological Types (1921)Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Later
Psychology and Alchemy (1944)Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (1951)Answer to Job (1954)Mysterium Coniunctionis (1956)
Posthumous
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961)Man and His Symbols (1964)Red Book (2009) Seven Sermons to the Dead (1916)Black Books (2020)
The Collected Works
of C. G. Jung
Psychiatric Studies (1970)Experimental Researche (1973)Psychogenesis of Mental Disease (1960)Freud & Psychoanalysis (1961)Symbols of Transformation (1967, a revision of Psychology of the Unconscious, 1912)Psychological Types (1971)Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (1967)Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche (1969)Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1969)Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (1969)Civilization in Transition (1970)Psychology and Religion (1970)Psychology and Alchemy (1944)Alchemical Studies (1968)Mysterium Coniunctionis (1970)Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature (1966)Practice of Psychotherapy (1966)Development of Personality (1954)The Symbolic Life (1977)General Bibliography (Revised Edition) (1990)General Index (1979)
People
Jungfrauen
Marie-Louise von FranzBarbara HannahJolande JacobiAniela JafféEmma JungToni Wolff
Colleagues
Sigmund FreudMaria MoltzerWolfgang PauliSabina SpielreinVictor WhiteRichard Wilhelm
Followers
Joseph CampbellJames HillmanErich NeumannMaud OakesJordan PetersonLaurens van der PostSonu ShamdasaniJune SingerAnthony Stevens
Houses
Bollingen TowerC. G. Jung House Museum
Organizations
Bollingen FoundationC. G. Jung Institute in ZürichEranosInt'l Assoc. for Analytical PsychologyInt'l Assoc. for Jungian StudiesJungian Society for Scholarly StudiesPhilemon FoundationPsychology Club Zürich
Popular culture
A Dangerous MethodSynchronicity (albumsong 12)Shadow ManThe Soul KeeperPersona (series)Soul
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus

Jung and the idea of androgyny in human beings
Like all archetypal Jungian representations the anima, in which Jung was interested before the animus, is so named because it emanates from an inner image, an image in the soul, unlike the persona which is a exterior image.

Jung, in The Roots of Consciousness (p. 42.) gives a biological explanation for the fact that there is some kind of residue of the character of the opposite sex:

“The image of the opposite sex resides, to some extent, in each sex, since biologically it is only the greater number of male genes that tips the scales in the choice of male sex. The smaller number of female genes appears to constitute a female trait which, however, usually remains unconscious due to its quantitative inferiority. "

It is on this presence of the two elements male and female that he bases his idea of the androgyny of the human being.

This idea of the androgyny of the human being is rooted in the biological and in the conscious-unconscious psychic totality. The unconscious would then have the coloring of the opposite sex. How to recognize and make accessible to experience the manifestations of this archetype?

This is one of the subjects on which Jung is least clear. However, with many digressions on the general functioning of the psyche, he gives us indications in several guide books of which we will retain Dialectics of the Self and the Unconscious, The Roots of Consciousness, Aion, and Transference Psychology.First coined by famous psychiatrist Carl Jung, the terms “Anima” and “Animus” refer to the indwelling masculine and feminine energies that we all possess. Specifically, the anima is thought to be the feminine part of a man’s soul, and the animus refers to the masculine part of a female’s soul. Both the anima and animus are ancient archetypes (or raw forms of energy) that every being contains.

Let’s explore these parts of us more in depth …

The Anima Explained
Derived from Latin meaning “a current of air, wind, breath, the vital principle, life, soul,” the Anima refers to the unconscious feminine dimension of a male which is often forgotten or repressed in daily life.

As it’s generally considered taboo to embrace the inner female side, men often fail to fully embody and embrace this fundamental energy. Sadly, if a male does embrace his Anima, he is often criticized as being “a wimp,” “a sissy,” “a fag,” and other horribly derogatory names.

However, in the perspective of psychology, in order to fully step into a mature masculine role, a man must go on a quest to explore this inner Divine Feminine energy. In other words, he must unite with the other half of his Soul.

Often, this quest results in some sort of projection, that is, trying to find the ideal lover or soul mate in the form of another idealized person. But we can never embody the Anima through another person – only through our own concerted effort. The key realization here is that we must find this force within us, rather than disown it onto another.

As described by Jungian Psychologist Dan Johnston, the man who has connected with his feminine Anima displays “tenderness, patience, consideration and compassion.” However, repression of the female element within males often results in a negative Anima that emerges as personality traits such as “vanity, moodiness, bitchiness, and sensitivity to hurt feelings.”

Indeed, a man who has failed to embody his Anima also tends to fall prey to emotional numbness and toxic masculine traits such as aggression, ruthlessness, coldness, and a purely rational approach to life.

The Animus Explained
The Animus, which is a Latin word that means “the rational soul; life; the mental powers, intelligence,” is the unconscious male dimension in the female psyche. Due to societal, parental, and cultural conditioning, the Animus, or male element within the woman, is often inhibited, restrained, and suppressed.

But the Animus isn’t always repressed – sometimes, it is actually over-emphasized and imposed upon women. Take Western society for example. Here is a culture that ruthlessly imposes masculine ideals such as stoicism, emotional numbness, and ruthlessness as ways to excel and succeed in life.

All of these external elements can contribute towards a negative Animus, which can reveal itself in a woman’s personality through argumentative tendencies, brutishness, destructiveness, and insensitivity. However, integrating a positive Animus into the female psyche can result in strength, assertiveness, levelheadedness, and rationality.

Taken on: March 28, 2024

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