ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the features of C. G. Jung’s animus/anima attribution with specific emphasis on his analysis of the negative dynamic of the animus. It argues that although Jung characterizes “animus possession” to the detriment of women, his proposition of a contra-sexual archetypal agency compensating for our gendered subjectivity is far-reaching. Fundamental to Jung’s archetypal thesis is the concept of a feminine and masculine principle the attributes of which are defined in dialectical terms, namely Eros and Logos. The simplification of woman as nurturer and man as thinker needed to be perpetuated and Jung’s amalgam of gendered attribution and biological difference—masculine/male; feminine/female does little to ensure change. The fact that Jung secures the dynamic of Logos to the masculine as the “power of the word” raises the question of Jung’s relationship to J. Lacan.
