The Anima

The anima is an image. When Jung writes about the anima as if it were a person, he is referring to the characteristics which it manifests in a series of dreams. The corresponding image of the masculine in a woman's dreams is the animus (see 1951, pp. 11-22). June Singer, a Jungian analyst, argues (1977) that androgyny is both the starting point and the goal of individual development. This suggests a parallel with Freud's theory of bisexuality. Jung's original concept, however, refers only to the "contrasexual other" which appears in dreams and waking fantasies.

Attitudes

Jung (1921) distinguished between two attitudes (extraversion, introversion), which refer to habitual emphases in an individual's psychic orientation. Each attitude is complimented by a tendency to emphasize one of four psychological functions: two rational (thinking, feeling) and two irrational (sensation, intuition).

Eros

By eros, Jung meant a principle of psychic relatedness, whether to another human being, or indeed anything "other"; not specifically or exclusively as sexual passion, but certainly including this. Although a key term in his ideas, his definitions of it are somewhat vague: see (1951), p. 14. The parallel with the myth of Narcissus was noted by Albeaux-Fernet (1972); he, however, makes no reference to Echo, who is central to the myth. Narcissus is a hunter, more interested in his own pursuits than in relating with a female figure (cf. Adonis, below). His love for his own reflection is a punishment given him by Nemesis, the goddess of righteous retribution, for rejecting Echo.

References

Albeaux-Fernet, M. (1972) Cantate à trois voix. Revue des Deux Mondes 1972: 564-571.

Jung, C. G. (1921) Psychological Types. Collected Works, 6, 1971.

_____. (1951) Aion. Collected Works, 9.ii, 1968.

Singer, J. (1977) Androgyny. New York: Doubleday.


Last modified 2002