Anima and Animus Archives

Mercy! Possession by the Animus.

“Like the anima, the animus is a jealous lover.” G. Jung, CW7 ¶ 334 "The animus appears in many myths, not only as death, but also as a bandit and murderer, for example, as the knight Bluebeard, who murdered all his wives." - ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche, Page 280 I love you But I gotta stay true My morals got me on my knees I'm begging, please, stop playing games I don't know what this is 'Cause you got me good Just like you knew you...

July 17, 2023

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, Jungian Themes, Marie-Louise von Franz, Shadowanimus, shadow4 Comments

Anima and Animus: Desire and Prohibition

Speaking frankly, I think it is accurate to say the Jungian discourse on the anima and animus is currently in a state of some disarray. By saying that, I am not claiming that no one has or is working on its remedy. Respected scholars in the field, and just to name a few I have some personal association with, such as Polly-Young Eisendrath, John Beebe, Susan Rowland, and Andrew Samuels, among many others, have written on it. Each in their...

October 24, 2022

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, desire and drive17 Comments

The Anima: a post-Jungian perspective

The Jungian concept of the anima and animus is one of Jung’s most engaging and potent contributions to psychoanalysis. Of all the articles we have published on this site the posts on the anima and animus consistently get the most views and rank highest on Google’s search engines. It is one of those ideas that has come to be definitive of Jungian psychology.Simultaneously, of all the concepts we have taught at the Centre none has proved more difficult than the...

June 29, 2020

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, Archetypes20 Comments

Spirit or soul? A New Age movement critique.

I recently signed up with my Alma Mater to do a module called Contemporary Spirituality. The main concept that emerged for me is that the New Age movement is capturing the market of modern individuals attempting to connect with the transcendent. This essay is a critical look at the New Age Movement and its influence and effect on Modern Spirituality. I also explore the difference between soul and spirit and the modern attitude towards both. The attitude towards spirituality and soul in western...

August 25, 2016

By Anja van KralingenAnima and Animus, Individuation, Uncategorizedindividuation, new age, soul, spiritual, spirituality6 Comments

Anima Possession: Are you a spineless wimp?

This is the second part of two posts on the Classic version of Jung’s Anima and Animus theory in which I condense the information from Marie-Louise von Franz’s book Anima and Animus in Fairy Tales [1]. This post focuses on the malevolent, destructive, dysfunctional Anima and how that affects a man and also attempts to address the approach to take in order to integrate the Anima and thus render her benevolent and constructive. In the classic version of Jungian psychology, the...

April 1, 2015

By Anja van KralingenAnima and Animus, Jungian Themesanima, animus, C.G. Jung, individuation, Jung, Jungian, jungian perspective, Jungian themes, Jungian Therapy53 Comments

Animus Possession: Are you a ball busting bitch?

In preparation for our Anima and Animus Module on the Conscious Living Programme, I re-read Marie Louise von Franz book “Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales”[1]. Whilst it is a fascinating read, I can’t say that I enjoy reading her, since her writing style is very difficult to follow. I decided to extract the invaluable information from “Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales” into two concise posts that explains the process of integrating the Animus and Anima. This...

February 18, 2015

By Anja van KralingenAnima and Animus, Jungian Themesanima, animus, Carl Gustav Jung, fairy tales, Jung, Jungian, jungian perspective62 Comments

The Archetypes of the Anima and Animus

One of the most interesting and provocative archetypes we encounter in Jungian Psychology is that of the Anima and Animus. The Anima/Animus relates to our inner or soul life. Not soul as understood in metaphysical terms as something which lives on beyond our physical existence but rather soul as in the inner force that animates us. These soul definitions stem from a time, when Jung was doing this work, where the gender roles were more traditionally and clearly differentiated. So some...

February 4, 2015

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, Jungian Themesanima, Anima and Animus, animus, archetypes, Jung anima development, Jung Animus dreams, Jungian Theory46 Comments

The Library of the Mind: imaginal photography and your thinking function

Logos, reason, (directed) thinking, animus, intellect, imaginal photography C. G. Jung divides the mind into four distinct psychological functions: thinking, feeling (or evaluation), intuition, and sensation.[1] The function we are going to consider in this post, thinking, is the psychological function which, following its own laws, brings the contents of ideation [ideas] into conceptual connection with one another. It is an apperceptive activity, and as such may be dived into active and passive thinking. Active thinking is an...

March 31, 2014

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, Jungian Themesanimus, imaginal, logos, thinking function0 Comments