HISTORY OF IDEAS

ANIMA AND ANIMUS

Heraa Tariq

16248

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, we would like to thank

the Almighty Allah for bestowing
us with the knowledge and
wisdom to complete this project.
We would like to express our
deep gratitude to Sir Asad
Shehzad our research
supervisor, for his enthusiastic
encouragement, moral support
and useful critiques of this term
project.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................4
THEORY OF THE LIBIDO.................................................................5
THEORY OF THE UNCONCIOUS......................................................6
ARCHETYPES.................................................................................7
ANIMA........................................................................................... 8
ANIMUS....................................................................................... 10
THE SYZYGY (THE DIVINE COUPLE).............................................12
SHORTCOMINGS AND
CRITICISM
. 12

INTRODUCTION
CARL JUNG
Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26th 1875 in Kesswil, a small
Swiss village. Jung was the fourth and only surviving child. Jung
was pushed to the ground at age twelve and lost consciousness,
anytime Carl was suppose to go to school or do homework he
fainted. After hearing his fathers concern for Carls future he
began a renewed focus for academics. Jung never fainted again
but recalls this as his first experiences with neurosis. Jung later
began to study medicine but showed interest in spirituality,
leading him to psychiatry. Jung graduated from the University of
Basel with a medical degree in 1902. Carl Jung died in his home
on June 6th, 1961 due to a brief illness.
Jung completed his book Studies in Word Association in 1902 and
sent a copy to Sigmund Freud, this initiated the relationship
between the two. The men's first personal encounter was in 1907,
in which its reported they spent more than 12 hours talking.
Freud accepted and viewed Jung as his protg as Jung had the
desire to further understand art, myth, dreams and philosophy. As
Jung began formulating his own diverging ideas their relationship
slowly dissolved. Jung began to reject Freuds emphasis on sex as
behavior motivation. During this period Jung became intensely

fixated on dreams and symbols, this period served as a basis for

his own psychological theories.
Jungs theory centered around the unconscious converged the
psyche into three separate parts. The first being the ego, this is
associated with the conscious mind. The second being the
personal unconscious, this includes anything that has the
possibility to be conscious yet presently isnt. Memories are an
example of the personal unconscious, thus being that they are
suppressed but have the potential to be conscious. The last sector
being the collective unconscious, this being the knowledge we are
all born with effecting our behaviors and emotions indirectly.
Extraversion\Introversion were both aspects first popularized by
Jung. As oppose to many current perspectives Jung believed that
all people contain both aspects. Jung defined an introvert to be
focus inner psychic activity and an extrovert to be the outside
world. Analytical psychology is another originating from the ideas
of Carl Jung. The aim of this is wholeness through the integration
of unconscious forces and motivations underlying human
behavior. This is a theory using the model that the unconscious
mind is a source of healing and development.
Most of Jungs psychological career was devoted towards the
unconscious. Carl began to formulate a theory that would end as
being very similar to Freuds although the works were
accomplished concurrently. Jung brought the idea of psychological
archetypes fitting to the collective unconscious. This is where
Jungs work differed, as most Freuds accusations with the
unconscious involved sexuality to an excessive extent. He
introduced many archetypes he believed were being exhibited
through our unconscious mind. The most famous being The
Shadow, Anima and Animus.
As many considered Freuds work to be vulgar and wrong due to
sexuality Jungs adaptation of the unconscious became
increasingly popular providing understanding of the human mind

and the unconscious. Jungs analysis of a patient led to the

creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Jungian archetypes and
his study of unconscious mind increases our understanding of
dream analysis. Jungs popularization of introversion and
extraversion has been used for the development of personality
psychology as well as influencing psychotherapy.

THEORY OF THE LIBIDO

Jung (1948) disagreed with Freud regarding the role of sexuality.
He believed the libido was not just sexual energy, but instead
generalized psychic energy.
For Jung for purpose of psychic energy was to motivate the
individual in a number of important ways, including spiritually,
intellectually, and creatively.
It was also an individuals motivational source for seeking
pleasure and reducing conflict

THEORY OF THE UNCONCIOUS

Jung placed greater emphasis on the unconscious than Freud.
Jung suggested that the psyche was composed of three
components: the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective
unconscious.
According to Jung, the ego represents the conscious mind as it
comprises the thoughts, memories, and emotions a person is
aware of.

Like Freud, Jung (1921, 1933) emphasized the importance of the

unconscious in relation to personality. However, he proposed that
the unconscious consists of two layers.
The first layer called the personal unconscious is essentially the
same as Freuds version of the unconscious. The personal
unconscious contains temporality forgotten information and well
as repressed memories.
Jung (1933) outlined an important feature of the personal
unconscious called complexes. A complex is a collection of
thoughts, feelings, attitudes and memories that focus on a single
concept. The more elements attached to the complex, the greater
its influence on the individual.
The second, deeper layer, Jung called the collective unconscious.
This is a level of unconscious shared with other members of the
human species comprising latent memories from our ancestral
and evolutionary past. The form of the world into which [a
person] is born is already inborn in him, as a virtual image (Jung,
1953, p. 188). Jung called these ancestral memories and images
archetypes.

ARCHETYPES
The collective unconscious, Jung believed, was where these
archetypes exist. He suggested that these models are innate,

universal and hereditary. Archetypes are unlearned and function

to organize how we experience certain things.
"All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes,"
Jung explained in his book The Structure of the Psyche. "This is
particularly true of religious ideas, but the central concepts of
science, philosophy, and ethics are no exception to this rule. In
their present form they are variants of archetypal ideas created
by consciously applying and adapting these ideas to reality. For it
is the function of consciousness, not only to recognize and
assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses,
but to translate into visible reality the world within us."
Jung identified four major archetypes, but also believed that there
was no limit to the number that may exist.

The Self
The self is an archetype that represents the unification of the
unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual. The creation
of the self occurs through a process known as individuation, in
which the various aspects of personality are integrated. Jung often
represented the self as a circle, square or mandala.

The Shadow
The shadow is an archetype that consists of the sex and life
instincts. The shadow exists as part of the unconscious mind and
is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts
and shortcomings. This archetype is often described as the darker
side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos and the
unknown. These latent dispositions are present in all of us, Jung
believed, although people sometimes deny this element of their
own psyche and instead project it onto others.
Jung suggested that the shadow can appear in dreams or visions
and may take a variety of forms. It might appear as a snake, a

monster, a demon, a dragon or some other dark, wild or exotic

figure.

The Persona
The persona is how we present ourselves to the world. The word
"persona" is derived from a Latin word that literally means
"mask." It is not a literal mask, however. The persona represents
all of the different social masks that we wear among different
groups and situations. It acts to shield the ego from negative
images. According to Jung, the persona may appear in dreams
and take a number of different forms.

The Anima or Animus

One of the most prevalent patterns is that of the Anima (female) /
Animus (male), or, more simply, the Soul, and is the route to
communication with the collective unconscious.
The anima/animus represents our true self, as opposed to
the masks we wear every day and is the source of our creativity.
Anima and animus are female and male principles that represent
this deep difference. Whilst men have a fundamental animus and
women an anima, each may also have the other, just as men
have a feminine side and women a masculine. Jung saw men as
having one dominant anima, contributed to by female members
of his family, whilst women have a more complex, variable
animus, perhaps made of several parts.

ANIMA
The anima is the female aspect of male psyche.
The anima has positive traits. When the anima is allowed to
express her through a man's psyche, she brings the attributes of
feelings, emotions, tenderness, relatedness, commitment and
fidelity, friendship, love and compassion, imagination, gentleness,
romance, creativity, intuition, and a sense of aesthetics.
The anima has negative traits. If the anima is rejected, her traits
are deformed: feelings and emotions are replaced by moodiness,
sentimentality, hysteria, or bitchiness; fidelity becomes
possessiveness; aesthetics become sensuality; tenderness
becomes effeminacy; imagination becomes mere fantasizing; love
and romance are twisted into a series of turbulent relationships or
the man's withdrawal from his wife and family.
The spurned anima does more than thrust her own feminine
qualities into expression (however warped); she also disturbs the
man's masculinity by, for example, degrading his thinking into the
weak opinionating.

THE ANIMA PROJECTION

The individuated man identifies with those personal qualities that
are symbolically masculine; he develops these potentialities and
to some extent integrates their unconscious influences into his
conscious personality.
However, he does not recognize qualities that are symbolically
feminine as part of his own personality but rather projects them
onto women.
He will project his animathose particular characteristics and
potentialities that are significant components of his personal
unconscious and therefore carry a special emotional chargeonto

a few women for whom he will then feel a strong and compelling
emotion (usually positive but occasionally negative).
Infatuation (an instant, powerful attraction for a woman about
whom he knows little) is one of the signs of anima projection, as is
a
compulsive

possessiveness.

THE ANIMA POSSESSION

Since the individuated man has not consciously developed any of
his symbolically feminine qualities (e.g. emotion, need for
relatedness), his personality is apt to be taken over or
"possessed" by these qualities at times, so that his emotional
behavior and relationships may be acted out in childish and
immature ways that are apparent to others but not to him.

ANIMUS
Animus is the archetype of reason and spirit in women. This is the
male aspect of the female psyche.
The animus has positive traits. The animus can endow a woman
with assertiveness, courage, analytical thought, strength, vitality,
decisiveness, a focused attentiveness, and a desire for
achievement.
The animus has negative traits. If the animus must push his way
past the woman's resistance, his qualities are corrupted:
assertiveness becomes aggression and ruthlessness; analytical
thought becomes argumentativeness; focus becomes mechanistic
behavior.

Jung about Animus (quotes):

Woman is compensated by a masculine element and therefore
her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This
results in a considerable psychological difference between men
and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-making
factor in women the animus, which means mind or
spirit. (From the Syzygy: Anima and Animus, Collected Works, 9ii,
par. 28f.)
The animus is the deposit, as it were, of all woman's ancestral
experiences of man - and not only that, he is also a creative and
procreative being, not in the sense of masculine creativity, but in
the sense that he brings forth something we might call... the
spermatic word. (From: Anima and Animus, Collected Works 7,
par. 336.)

THE ANIMUS PROJECTION

The individuated woman identifies with those personal qualities
that are symbolically feminine; she develops these potentialities
and to some extent integrates their unconscious influences into
her conscious personality.
However, she does not recognize qualities that are symbolically
masculine as part of her own personality but rather projects them
onto men.

She will project her animusthose particular characteristics and

potentialities that are significant components of her personal
unconscious and therefore carry a special emotional chargeonto
a few men for whom she will then feel a strong and compelling
emotion (usually positive but occasionally negative).
Infatuation (an instant, powerful attraction for a man about whom
she knows little) is one of the signs of animus projection, as is a
compulsive possessiveness.

THE ANIMUS POSSESSION

Since the individuated woman has not consciously developed any
of her symbolically masculine qualities (e.g. logic, leadership,
need for independence), her personality is apt to be taken over or
"possessed" by these qualities at times, so that she appears

opinionated, argumentative, or domineering to others, though she

will not think of herself that way.
In the words of Jung, "Just as the anima of a man consists of
inferior relatedness, full of affect, so the animus of woman
consists of inferior judgments, or better, opinions." Alchemical
Studies: The Secret of the Golden Flower (CW 13, par.60).

THE ANIMUS INFLATED

Animus-inflated women with strong interest in intellectual matters
find the need to impose and maintain a rigorous and schematic
list of values judged the most important. There's no reflection
as regard the little substance and significance of these values, nor
any aim at discussing about them, only the urge to impose them
to others.
There is a very important study on the animus written by Jung's
wife Emma. She wrote: "What we women have to overcome in our
relation to the animus is not pride but lack of self-confidence and
the resistance of inertia. For us, it is not as though we had to
demean ourselves, but as if we had to lift ourselves" (Animus and
Anima, Spring Publications, Dallas, Texas, 1978).

THE SYZYGY (THE DIVINE COUPLE)

In combination, the anima and animus are known as syzygy (a

word also used to denote alignment of planets), representing
wholeness and completion. This combining brings great power
and can be found in religious combinations such as the Christian
Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost).
A perfect partnership between man and woman can occur when
their physical forms as well as their anima and animus are
compatible. That is how one finds his/her might soul-mate. Finding
our matching other half is a lifetime of search for many of us, and
few of us succeed in this quest. Love of another indicates an
actual, perceived or hoped-for close match.

Shortcomings and criticisms

Jung constructed a very complex structure of the human
psyche that is not easy to understand fully and clearly. He
also changed his mind from time to time which shows how
tenuous some of his concepts and theories were &ideas were
a little more mystical and obscure and less clearly explained
probably evade scientific testing.
On the other hand, Jung was very dogmatic about some of
his theories. Reno's Papadopoulos writes that Jung stuck to
theories he invented and propagated them with the fervor
of a zealot
It was a mistake of Jung to restrict religion to numinous
experiences as many devout believers pursue their religion
without such experiences. We can strive to reach that of God
in us by different means, not only numinous experiences.
Praying, listening and meditating are some of the routes we
can take.