Settling with my anima and facing her animus

[just_some_guy]

Anyone ever find themselves in the place of seeing this for themselves, first hand?

 

I find in myself that I'm growing and maturing, integrating the parts. I have begun to see this in terms of settling into a peaceful existence with my own anima.

 

I also have begun to realize the unsettled animus that I was facing from my DW. The more I read, the more I consciously see how this works, how some of the visceral, argumentative parts of her are part and parcel of this unsettled self.

 

How this bad dynamic worked within me and how I allowed myself to be lost in the relationship, how the two of us interacted and built into a bad dynamic that left me feeling like a plant in too small of a pot, that all of myself was being squashed and forced out, inch by inch.

 

Perhaps I'm on the limb way out there, but I'm finding a lot of center in this understanding. It makes a lot of sense from this Jungian point of view.

[florence of suburbia]

Could you explain the terminology please?

[tojaz]

Well if you dont like facing her animus, you can always ask her to turn around. :laugh:

 

Ok, Ok, awful I know. I think it is a natural by product of this situation. In a drive to relate to our partners in the search for understanding we tap into areas we normally wouldn't. Like someone says a lot around here a change of perspective, but it has a much more profound effect as we continue to learn about ourselves.

 

TOJAZ

 

For Florence and others not familiar with Jung...

 

The anima and animus in Carl Jung's school of analytical psychology, are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind, as opposed to both the theriomorphic and 'inferior'-function of the shadow archetypes, as well as the abstract symbol sets that formulate the archetype of the Self. The anima and animus are described by Jung as elements of his theory of the collective unconscious, a domain of the unconscious that transcends the personal psyche. In the unconscious of the male, it finds expression as a feminine inner personality: anima; equivalently, in the unconscious of the female, it is expressed as a masculine inner personality: animus.

It can be identified as the totality of the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male possesses; or the masculine ones possessed by the female. The anima is an archetype of the collective unconscious and not an aggregate of a man's mother, sisters, aunts, and teachers though these aspects of the personal unconscious can 'influence for good or ill' the person.

Because sensitivity is often repressed, the anima is one of the most significant autonomous complexes of all. It manifests itself by appearing as figures in dreams as well as by influencing a man's interactions with women and his attitudes toward them, and vice versa for females and the animus. Jung said that confronting one's shadow self is an "apprentice-piece," while confronting one's fears is the masterpiece. Jung viewed the anima process as being one of the sources of creative ability.