Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

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Man’s Inner Woman
The anima is the archetype of life itself. 23
Psychologically a man’s inner woman, his anima, functions as his
soul. When a man is full of life we say he is “animated.” The man
with no connection to his feminine side feels dull and listless.
Nowadays we call this depression, but the experience is not new.
For thousands of years, among so-called primitive peoples, it has
been known as loss of soul.
A man’s inner image of woman is initially determined by his
experience of his personal mother or closest female caregiver. It is
later modified through contact with other women—friends, relatives,
teachers—but the experience of the personal mother is so
powerful and long-lasting that a man is naturally attracted to those
women who are much like her—or, as often happens, women quite
unlike her. That is to say, he may yearn for what he’s known, or
seek to escape it at all costs.
A man who is unconscious of his feminine side is apt to see that
aspect of himself, whatever its characteristics may be, in an actual
woman. This happens via projection and is commonly experienced
as falling in love or, conversely, as intense dislike. A man may also
project his anima onto another man, in love or hate, though in practice
this is often difficult to distinguish from the projection of the
man’s shadow.
A man unrelated to his inner woman tends to be moody, sometimes
gentle and sentimental but prone to sudden rage and violence.
Analysts call this being anima-possessed. By paying attention to his
moods and emotional reactions—objectifying and personifying
23 “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” The Archetypes and the Collective
Unconscious, CW 9i, par. 66.
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