Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

44 Man’s Inner Woman
so to speak. That is to say, as one personification of the anima is
consciously understood, it is supplanted by another. Anima development
in a man is thus a continuous process of death and rebirth.
An understanding of this process is very important in surviving the
transition stage between one anima-image and the next. Just as no
real woman relishes being discarded for another, so no anima-figure
willingly takes second place to her upstart rival. In this regard, as in
so much else involved in a person’s psychological development, the
good is the enemy of the better. 25 To have made contact with your
inner woman at all is a blessing; to be tied to one that holds you
back can be fatal.
While the old soul-mate clamors for the attention that now, in order
for the man to move on, is demanded by and due to the new
one, the man is often assailed by conflicting desires. The struggle is
not just an inner, metaphorical one; it also involves his lived relationships
with real women. The resultant suffering and inner turmoil,
the tension and sleepless nights, are comparable to what occurs
in any conflict situation.
As the mediating function between the ego and the unconscious,
the anima is complementary to the persona and in a compensatory
relationship to it. That is to say, all those qualities absent from the
outer attitude will be found in the inner. Jung gives the example of
a tyrant tormented by bad dreams and gloomy forebodings:
Outwardly ruthless, harsh, and unapproachable, he jumps inwardly
at every shadow, is at the mercy of every mood, as though he were
the feeblest and most impressionable of men. Thus his anima contains
all those fallible human qualities his persona lacks. 26
Similarly, when a man identifies with his persona, he is in effect
possessed by the anima, with all the attendant symptoms.
Identity . . . with the persona automatically leads to an unconscious
25 Jung: “If better is to come, good must step aside.” (“The Development of Personality,”
The Development of Personality, CW 17, par. 320.
26 “Definitions,” Psychological Types, CW 6, par. 804.