Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Jung: Analytical
Psychology
© The McGraw−Hill^115
Companies, 2009Animus
The masculine archetype in women is called the animus.Whereas the anima repre-
sents irrational moods and feelings, the animus is symbolic of thinking and reason-
ing. It is capable of influencing the thinking of a woman, yet it does not actually be-
long to her. It belongs to the collective unconscious and originates from the
encounters of prehistoric women with men. In every female-male relationship, the
woman runs a risk of projecting her distant ancestors’ experiences with fathers,
brothers, lovers, and sons onto the unsuspecting man. In addition, of course, her per-
sonal experiences with men, buried in her personal unconscious, enter into her rela-
tionships with men. Couple these experiences with projections from the man’s anima
and with images from his personal unconscious, and you have the basic ingredients
of any female-male relationship.
Jung believed that the animus is responsible for thinking and opinion in
women just as the anima produces feelings and moods in men. The animus is also
the explanation for the irrational thinking and illogical opinions often attributed to
women. Many opinions held by women are objectively valid, but according to Jung,
close analysis reveals that these opinions were not thought out, but existed ready-
made. If a woman is dominated by her animus, no logical or emotional appeal can
shake her from her prefabricated beliefs (Jung, 1951/1959a). Like the anima, the an-
imus appears in dreams, visions, and fantasies in a personified form.
Great Mother
Two other archetypes, the great mother and the wise old man, are derivatives of the
anima and animus. Everyone, man or woman, possesses a great motherarchetype.
This preexisting concept of mother is always associated with both positive and neg-
ative feelings. Jung (1954/1959c), for example, spoke of the “loving and terrible
mother” (p. 82). The great mother, therefore, represents two opposing forces—fer-
tility and nourishment on the one hand and power and destruction on the other. She
is capable of producing and sustaining life (fertility and nourishment), but she may
also devour or neglect her offspring (destruction). Recall that Jung saw his own
mother as having two personalities—one loving and nurturing; the other uncanny, ar-
chaic, and ruthless.
Jung (1954/1959c) believed that our view of a personal loving and terrible
mother is largely overrated. “All those influences which the literature describes as
being exerted on the children do not come from the mother herself, but rather from
the archetype projected upon her, which gives her a mythological background” (p.
83). In other words, the strong fascination that mother has for both men and women,
often in the absence of a close personal relationship, was taken by Jung as evidence
for the great mother archetype.
The fertility and nourishment dimension of the great mother archetype is sym-
bolized by a tree, garden, plowed field, sea, heaven, home, country, church, and hol-
low objects such as ovens and cooking utensils. Because the great mother also rep-
resents power and destruction, she is sometimes symbolized as a godmother, the
Mother of God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, a stepmother, or a witch. One exam-
ple of the opposing forces of fertility and destruction is the story of Cinderella,
whose fairy godmother is able to create for her a world of horses, carriages, fancy
balls, and a charming prince. However, the powerful godmother could also destroy
Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 109