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one. The man under her spell is often a Don Juan who engages in
repeated sexual adventures. These will invariably be short-lived, for
two reasons: 1) he has a fickle heart his feelings are whimsical
and often gone in the morning and 2) no real woman can live up
to the expectations that go with this unconscious, ideal image.
The third stage of anima development Jung calls Mary. It mani-
fests in religious feelings and a capacity for genuine friendship with
women. The man with an anima of this kind is able to see a woman
as she is, independent of his own needs. His sexuality is integrated
into his life, not an autonomous function that drives him. He can
differentiate between love and lust. He is capable of lasting rela-
tionships because he can tell the difference between the object of
his desire and his inner image of woman.
In the fourth stage, as Sophia (called Wisdom in the Bible), a
24
See  The Psychology of the Transference, The Practice of Psychotherapy, CW
16, par. 361; also Marie-Louise von Franz,  The Process of Individuation, in C.G.
Jung, Man and His Symbols, pp. 185-186.
Man s Inner Woman 43
man s anima functions as a guide to the inner life, mediating to
consciousness the contents of the unconscious. Sophia is behind the
need to grapple with the grand philosophical issues, the search for
meaning. She is Beatrice in Dante s Inferno, and the creative muse
in any artist s life. She is a natural mate for the archetypal  wise old
man in the male psyche. The sexuality of a man at this stage in-
corporates a spiritual dimension.
Theoretically, a man s anima development proceeds through
these stages as he grows older. When the possibilities of one have
been exhausted which is to say, when adaptation to oneself and
outer circumstances requires it the psyche stimulates the move to
the next stage.
In fact, the transition from one stage to another seldom happens
without a struggle, for the psyche not only promotes and supports
growth, it is also, paradoxically, conservative and loath to give up
what it knows. Hence a psychological crisis is commonly precipi-
tated when there is a pressing need for a man to move from one
stage to the next.
For that matter, a man may have periodic contact with any num-
ber of anima images, at any time of life, depending on what is re-
quired to compensate the current dominant conscious attitude. The
reality is that psychologically men live in a harem. Any man may
observe this for himself by paying close attention to his dreams and
fantasies. His soul-image appears in many different forms, as myr-
iad as the expressions of an actual woman s femininity.
In subhuman guise, the anima may manifest as snake, toad, cat
or bird; on a slightly higher level, as nixie, pixie, mermaid. In hu-
man form to mention only a few personifications modeled on
goddesses in Greek mythology the anima may appear as Hera,
consort and queen; Demeter/Persephone, the mother-daughter team;
Aphrodite, the lover; Pallas Athene, carrier of culture and protec-
tress of heroes; Artemis, the stand-offish huntress; and Hecate, ruler
in the netherworld of magic.
The assimilation of a particular anima-image results in its death,
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 devel-
opment 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 or-
der 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 rela-
tionships with real women. The resultant suffering and inner tur-
moil, the tension and sleepless nights, are comparable to what oc-
curs 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 con-
tains 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 Per-
sonality, The Development of Personality, CW 17, par. 320. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]