Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

48 Woman’s Inner Man
tual significance.
Any of these aspects of the animus can be projected onto a man,
who will be expected to live up to the projected image. As mentioned
earlier, the same is true of the anima. So in any relationship
between a man and a woman there are at least four personalities involved,
as shown in the diagram. 31
Theoretically, there is no difference between an unconscious
man and an unconscious woman’s animus. One implication of this
is that an unconscious man can be coerced into being or doing
whatever a woman wants. But it’s just as true the other way around:
unconscious women are easily seduced by a man’s anima. In relationships
there are no innocent victims.
The more differentiated a woman is in her own femininity, the
more able she is to reject whatever unsuitable role is projected onto
her by a man. This forces the man back on himself. If he has the
capacity for self-examination and insight, he may discover in himself
the basis for false expectations. Failing inner resources on either
side, there is only rancor and animosity.
31 Adapted from Jung’s drawing in “The Psychology of the Transference,” The
Practice of Psychotherapy, CW 16, par. 422.