“the feminine ideal of completeness”
The Masculine/Feminine (anima/animus) Archetype in the collective unconscious was proposed by C. G. Jung. He described the animus as the unconscious masculine side of a woman; and the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man. Broadly speaking, for the female, the animus unlocks action and power; for the male, the anima unlocks emotions, spirituality, intuition, creativity and sensitivity.
“Within each human being, archetypes are living psychic forces which can promote Self-Realization and if neglected or not understood, may cause neurotic or psychotic behavior. Let us take an example of one of the most basic archetypes—the anima and animus. … To be aware of the presence and implications of the anima [and animus] is simply to be able to use that awareness to increase our power in creating our own reality—to transcend reactivity—to remain responsive to our own deeper nature.”[i]
The American Psychological Association in 2019 defined “traditional masculinity”—a tough-guy identity—as a serious problem for men, and an even more egregious issue for families and communities. “The trouble with men, the guidelines argue, is that they’re violent and reckless, far more likely than women to end up in prison or dead before their time. But the deeper problem is they’re prisoners of ‘traditional masculinity,’ which the guidelines describe as a model of manhood marked by ‘emotional stoicism, homophobia [and] not showing vulnerability … .’ This tough-guy ideal encourages ‘aggression and violence as a means to resolve interpersonal conflict,’ and tempts men toward rape, drug abuse and suicide.”[ii]
“The Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, a 2015 Nobel Prize recipient, says such men are dying of drug overdoses, drink-induced liver disease and suicide—what they call deaths of despair.”[iii] Not many men would admit they feel hopeless or in despair, especially the ultra-masculine, stoic guys.
Scholars say men put themselves in charge around 4000 BCE and, we observe, they haven’t let go even to this day. Jung reminds us that “the more the feminine ideal is bent in the direction of the masculine, the more the woman loses her power to compensate the masculine striving for perfection, and a typically masculine, ideal state arises.”[iv]
In the insight below, Jung speaks of the “feminine ideal of completeness” which values gentleness, empathy, humility and sensitivity. These are not valued in a patriarchal society, but consider what our world would be like if they were?
Insight # 68 comes to us from C. G. Jung (1875-1961). He was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy and religion.
“No path leads beyond perfection into the future—there is only a turning back, a collapse of the ideal, which could easily have been avoided by paying attention to the feminine ideal of completeness. Yahweh’s perfectionism is carried over from the Old Testament into the New, and despite all the recognition and glorification of the feminine principle this never prevailed against the patriarchal supremacy. We have not therefore, by any means, heard the last of it.”[v]
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Additional Reading:
- Masculine and Feminine, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Henry, Roy Charles. “Archetypes.” The ABC’s Of Simple Reality, Vol 1. May 2018, p. 28.
[ii] Douthat, Ross. “In Search of Non-Toxic Manhood.” The New York Times Sunday Review. January 20, 2019, p. 11.
[iii] Hochschild, Adam. “White Men’s Burdens.” The New York Times Book Review. April 19, 2020, p. 11.
[iv] Jung, C. G. Answer to Job. New York: Princeton University Press, 1958, p. 37.
[v] Ibid.
