The Curse of the Wer.. - Site de Thomas - Free

120 THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
nature and femininity, merging feminist and ecological concerns. 16
Indeed, the ecological perspectives of ‘goddess worship’ are reflected
in the repeated references to such work in the theoretical literature
of ecofeminism. 17
In a move that was indebted to Jung’s theorization of the archetypal
content in the collective unconscious, ‘goddess’ literature often asserted
that knowledge of a prehistoric, powerful femininity is somehow
embedded in the modern psyche. This aspect of Jung’s work was founded
in biology, and contrasted with the emphasis upon social environment
which prevailed among his colleagues (including Freud) and which
has since dominated the study of psychology. 18 Jung confirmed the
biological foundations of his theory when he wrote that an archetype
‘is not meant to denote an inherited idea, but rather an inherited
mode of functioning … In other words, it is a “pattern of behaviour”.
This aspect of the archetype, the purely biological one, is the proper
concern of scientific psychology.’ 19 He was by no means proposing, of
course, that human behaviour is purely biologically determined; on
the contrary, as Anthony Stevens has explained, Jung was suggesting
that ‘the essential role of personal experience was to develop what is
already there — to actualise the archetypal potential already present
in the psycho-physical organism.’ 20 In effect, Jungian theory promised
transformation through the development of the archetypal substance
of the personality, while still acknowledging humanity’s connectivity
with the natural world — a combination that proved attractive to
feminists interested in creating a reservoir of empowering feminine
imagery. Certainly, because Jungian theory embraced the biology of
humanity, it seemed a more positive starting point than most other
models for exploring a femininity that has been negatively equated with
nature. At the same time, it encouraged the transformative process of
engagement with mythical and linguistic images that developments in
feminist theory demanded. 21
Consequently, writers engaged in the valorization of the feminine
have identified and elaborated a number of archetypal images. The
symbol of the cycle, for example, has been particularly evident in such
writing, and has, like other imagery of femininity and nature, required