Archetypes, as conceived by Jung, are deeply rooted, universal patterns of behaviour constallating the collective unconscious. They are not directly observable but manifest in symbols, dreams, and myths.
Carl Gustav Jung, the pioneer of depth psychology, described archetyps as “active living dispositions, patterns of human behavior” that manifest in similar way in various cultures and times. They represent common human experiences and express our psychological heritage. They form the foundation of our understanding of human behavior and interpersonal relationships. Archetyps are universal for all humanity. They express themselves trough symbols in myths, dreams, and cultural narratives. These patterns deeply anchored in the human psyche provide a unique access to the collective and personal themes that shape our lives.
Concept of Animus and Anima Archetyps
The archetype of anima is the central concept in Jung’s analytical psychology, through which Jung refers to the unconscious “soul image” of the woman in the psyche of the man. Animus is the complementary concept to Anima, the unconscious masculine image in the woman.
The Anima image has formed as a result of all the experiences that man has had with the females throughout human development. It is a type of experience that comes from ancient times and is stored in the collective unconscious.
The archetype of Anima becomes experienceable by a man trough Anima projection onto specific female figures who personify her or aspects of her. Various manifestations of Anima figures can be found in fairy tales, myths, literature, and religions, such as the saint, the witch, the mother-goddess, etc. The respective object of Anima projection exerts an emotional fascination or even a possesion on the affected man. Jung understands the anima projection as a call to recognize the unintegrated female soul aspects symbolized in the projection.
Integration of Anima and Animus Archetyps
Jung describes the integration of the Anima as a crucial task in the personality development of man. Due to its potential to liberate man to his wholeness (Self), Jung also calls the Anima the archetype of life.
Jung also found that in practice both anima and animus act in dreams in the imagination as mediators of the unconscious to the ego, helping for inner as well as outer adaptation. He described it as ‘soul-images’ and the ‘not-I’, for they are experienced as something mysterious and numinous, possessing great power.
The more unconscious the anima or animus are, the more likely they can be projected. Projection of anima into women and the animus into the man are responsible for the experience of falling in love. For this reason, Jung called the contra sexual complex “projection-making factor”.
C.G.Jung on Anima
Man carries within him the eternal image of the woman, not the of this or that woman, but a definite feminine image. This image is fundamentally unconscious, a hereditary factor of primordial – .’ (Cw XVII, Para. 338).
‘Woman is compensated by a masculine element and therefore her unconscious has so to speak, a masculine Ft… . And accordingly I have called the projection-making factor in women the animus. . . The animus corresponds to the paternal just as the anima corresponds to the maternal Eros’ (CW IX. ii, para.28).
Jung even goes so far as to declare that ‘the character of the anima can be deduced from that of the persona’ because ‘everything that should normally be in the outer attitude, but is conspicuously absent, will invariably be found in the inner attitude. This is a fundamental rule… (CWVI, Para. 806)