ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the psychodynamics of affect in relation to the gendered nature of the “heroic” ego, as understood by C. G. Jung. It addresses the “heroic” from the position of woman, both in relation to individuation, and in the light of certain revisions made to the history of psychoanalysis. Women have no choice but to question the assumption of a neutrality which underscores the terminology of individuation and defines its conceptual base as the process and authenticity by which experience itself is articulated into objective consciousness. H. Cixous, writing much later, offers some contemporary discussion of what has become increasingly widespread feminist interest in women’s individuation. In an earlier text Cixous had already put forward a form of female individuation which recognized a rebirth of the self, focusing on the emergence of the feminine voice to articulate her own position and refusing the context she was given.
