 Let's turn our attention to the two significant archetypes in our developing model of the psyche, these being the anima and the animus. Samuels defines the anima and the animus as, and I quote, the inner figure of woman held by a man and the figure of man at work in a woman's psyche, end quote. The anima exists in a man and the animus in a woman. Don't make the common mistake we all do when we begin with Jung's psychology of thinking they both exist in a man or both exist in a woman. They are archetypal images and they are not available immediately to consciousness. Both are of vital importance to the psyche's functioning, but because that they are unconscious, they can also be projected. Samuels goes on further to say that, and I quote, they act as psychopompy or guides of soul, and they can become necessary links with creative possibilities and instruments of individuation. Because of their archetypal connections, anima and animus have been represented in many collective forms and figures, as Aphrodite, Athena, Helen of Troy, Mary, Sapientia and Beatrice, or as Hermes, Apollo, Hercules, Alexander the Great or Romeo. In projection they attract attention and emotional fervor as public figures, but also as friends, lovers, commonplace and ordinary wives and husbands. We meet them as consorts in our dreams. As personified components of psyche, they connect and involve us with life. The last sentence that of personification is really important to our model. We tend to project a sense of otherness. In other words, as a man, I project a personification of the anima onto women. Because this personification is quite other to me, it is not me in its form. So as a man, the otherness is projected as female. For a woman, this otherness is projected as male. In so doing, the anima and the animus act as mediators between the ego in consciousness and the unconscious. These two archetypes are contentious issues in our day. When Jung published his ideas, being a man of his time, he wrote about these two archetypes in a very stereotyped fashion. And it is this manner of writing that has led to the controversy. Whether you agree with the constructs or not, start with beginning to understand them in terms of the psychodynamics of the psyche. Once you consider yourself fluent in their use, then go a little further and try to find alternative ways to represent otherness in the psyche. If you're interested in this material, there's a great book that you can read about the issues of masculinity and femininity and the contraceptual archetypes in Jungian psychology. This is by Susan Rowland, and the book is called Jung, A Feminist Revision. One of the core issues in the anima and the animus is that one can be gripped by these powerful images, and this may cause an alteration in your behavior. Samuel's notes that, and I quote, possession by either anima or animus transforms a personality in such a way as to give prominence to those traits which are seen as psychologically characteristic of the opposite sex. Either way, a person loses individuality, first of all, and then in either case, both charm and values. In a man, he becomes dominated by anima and by eros principles, with connotations of restlessness, promiscuity, moodiness, sentimentality, whatever could be described as unconstrained emotionality. A woman subject to the authority of the animus and logos is managerial, obstinate, ruthless, and domineering. Both become one-sided. He is seduced by inferior people and forms meaningless attachments. She, being taken in by second-rate thinking, marches forward under the banner of unrelated convictions. So you can see just from the very loaded language that these constructs are hot topics in analytical psychology. We also note from the above quote what would happen to us if we are dominated by the anima or the animus. Let's try a quick experiment. Think of your ideal partner. So for a straight male, imagine the ideal woman. What would she look like? How tall is she? What does her body, her hair, and her skin look like? How does she behave? What does she do for a living? How is she in bed? How does she comfort you when you are having a bad day? Is she strong and dominant or more submissive? Does she write poetry or paint? Is she good enough to be the mother of your children? Now that you have this ideal woman in your head, realize that you have just personified aspects of your anima. For a straight woman, do the same thing. Imagine the ideal male. What does he look like? How tall is he? Is he strong or is he weak? Does he protect you or lead the way? Does he initiate activities? Is he nurturing and communicative or silent and deep? How is he in bed? What does he do when you feel upset or scared after a hard day at work? This ideal male is a personification of the animus. You can also find Jung's definition of the anima and the animus in a series of short paragraphs that can be found in collected works 6 under the section called definitions. I have offered a very short overview of the anima and the animus and will enlarge on this material in later episodes. But for the moment, hopefully you have a basic understanding of the constructs and as a result have more components of the psyche to work with as we develop the psychodynamics of the psyche. The three books I mentioned are firstly La Planche and Ponthalice. That's L-A-P-L-A-N-C-H-E and Ponthalice P-O-N-T-A-L-I-S. The book is called The Language of Psychoanalysis. It was published in 1973. The second book is one I've mentioned before. That is Andrew Samuel's book called The Critical Dictionary of Analytical Psychology. And the third book mentioned is by Susan Rowland, R-O-W-L-A-N-D. And the book is called Jung, A Feminist Revision.