Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Jung: Analytical
Psychology
(^114) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
consciousness. Few men become well acquainted with their animabecause this task
requires great courage and is even more difficult than becoming acquainted with
their shadow. To master the projections of the anima, men must overcome intellec-
tual barriers, delve into the far recesses of their unconscious, and realize the femi-
nine side of their personality.
As we reported in the opening vignette in this chapter, Jung first encountered
his own anima during his journey through his unconscious psyche soon after his
break with Freud. The process of gaining acquaintance with his anima was Jung’s
second test of courage.Like all men, Jung could recognize his anima only after
learning to feel comfortable with his shadow (Jung, 1954/1959a, 1954/1959b).
In Memories, Dreams, Reflections,Jung vividly described this experience. In-
trigued by this “woman from within,” Jung (1961) concluded that
she must be the “soul,” in the primitive sense, and I began to speculate on the
reasons why the name “anima” was given to the soul. Why was it thought of as
feminine? Later I came to see that this inner feminine figure plays a typical, or
archetypal, role in the unconscious of a man, and I called her the “anima.” The
corresponding figure in the unconscious of woman I called the “animus.” (p. 186)
Jung believed that the anima originated from early men’s experiences with
women—mothers, sisters, and lovers—that combined to form a generalized picture
of woman. In time, this global concept became embedded in the collective uncon-
scious of all men as the anima archetype. Since prehistoric days, every man has come
into the world with a predetermined concept of woman that shapes and molds all his
relationships with individual women. A man is especially inclined to project his
anima onto his wife or lover and to see her not as she really is but as his personal and
collective unconscious have determined her. This anima can be the source of much
misunderstanding in male-female relationships, but it may also be responsible for the
alluring mystique woman has in the psyche of men (Hayman, 2001; Hillman, 1985).
A man may dream about a woman with no definite image and no particular
identity. The woman represents no one from his personal experience, but enters his
dream from the depths of his collective unconscious. The anima need not appear in
dreams as a woman, but can be represented by a feeling or mood (Jung, 1945/1953).
Thus, the anima influences the feeling side in man and is the explanation for certain
irrational moods and feelings. During these moods a man almost never admits that
his feminine side is casting her spell; instead, he either ignores the irrationality of the
feelings or tries to explain them in a very rational masculine manner. In either event
he denies that an autonomous archetype, the anima, is responsible for his mood.
The anima’s deceptive qualities were elucidated by Jung (1961) in his descrip-
tion of the “woman from within” who spoke to him during his journey into the un-
conscious and while he was contemplating whether his work was science.
What the anima said seemed to me full of a deep cunning. If I had taken these
fantasies of the unconscious as art, they would have carried no more conviction
than visual perceptions, as if I were watching a movie. I would have felt no moral
obligation toward them. The anima might then have easily seduced me into
believing that I was a misunderstood artist, and that my so-called artistic nature
gave me the right to neglect reality. If I had followed her voice, she would in all
probability have said to me one day, “Do you imagine the nonsense you’re
engaged in is really art? Not a bit.” Thus the insinuations of the anima, the
mouthpiece of the unconscious, can utterly destroy a man. (p. 187)
108 Part II Psychodynamic Theories