Some time ago, I wrote about this topic in three parts (1– 2- 3), and now I dare to continue this as I hit back into Jung’s essential explanations about this issue and its effects on our lives, from the family to the society.
In this part, he compares the Orientals and the Occidentals and the latter’s difficulties in differentiating between their own persona and their own Anima. Or, better to say, to understand and accept the existence of a personal form of the Anima in us all and our private lives.

First of all, let me say that the fact is that to understand Jung, one has to take a tour outside the solar system and, after returning, reread his works! But I promise, and as you know, his explorations in psychological self-knowledge are worth reading. However, in this explanation, he considers the subject in our everyday life. We see how useful it can be for us in everyday family life.

He explains himself much better here:

I believe there is a need for certain modern humans to recognize not only their differences from the persona but also from the Anima. Since our consciousness mainly flashes outwards – corresponding to the Western style – the inner things lie in the dark. But this difficulty can easily be overcome by trying to look with the same concentration and criticism at the psychic material that does not appear outside but only in private life. Being accustomed to modestly concealing this other side (perhaps even trembling before his own wife, she might expose him) and, when discovered, ruefully confessing his “weakness”, the only method of education is usually to recognize the weaknesses suppressed or repressed as much as possible, or at least hidden from the public. But nothing has been achieved with this.

What we actually have to do is probably best explained using the example of the persona. Everything is visible and apparent there, while with the Anima, everything is dark for us Westerners. When the Anima thwarts the good intentions of consciousness to a greater extent, inducing a private life that contrasts ill with the glamorous persona, it is the same as when a naïve person who is ignorant of the persona is in the most embarrassing world encounters difficulties. There are those people who have no developed persona – “Canadians who don’t know Europe’s whitewashed politeness” – who grope from one social “gaffe” to another, perfectly harmless and innocent, soulful bores or affected children or – if they’re women – Cassandra ghosts feared for their tactlessness, eternally misunderstood, who do not know what they are doing and therefore always assume forgiveness; who do not see the world but only dream it. These are the cases where we can see how a neglected persona works and what one would have to do to remedy the evil. Such people can only avoid disappointments and sufferings of all kinds, scenes and violence by learning how to determine the world. They must learn to understand what the partnership expects of them; they must see that there are factors and persons in the world far superior to them; they need to know that what they are doing means to others and so on. This, of course, is the syllabus of a toddler school for one who has properly formed his persona. But if we turn the stalk, and that of the man possessing a brilliant persona, confronts the Anima and brings in for comparison the man without the persona, we shall see that this one is as well informed as to the Anima and its affairs as that one is about the world. The use that both make out of their knowledge can, of course, be an abuse., and most likely, it will be.

Of course, the man with the persona does not understand the point of view of the existence of inner realities in the least, any more than the other does the reality of the world, which for him has only the value of an amusing or fantastic playground. But the fact of inner realities and their unconditional recognition is, of course, the Conditio sine qua non for taking the anima problem seriously. If the outside world is just a phantasm to me, how can I make any serious effort to set up a complicated system of relationships and adjustments to it? Likewise, the “nothing but fantasy” standpoint will never cause me to take my anima manifestations for anything other than silly weaknesses. But if I take the position that the world is outside and inside, that reality belongs to the outside as well as to the inside. Logically, I must also regard the disturbances and inconveniences that occur to me from within as a symptom of a defective adjustment to the conditions of the inner world to comprehend. Just as the thrashing that the harmless get in the world cannot be healed by moral repression, neither does it help to book one’s weaknesses as such resignedly. Here are reasons, intentions and consequences in which a will and an understanding can intervene. Take, for example, that “spotless” gentleman and public benefactor whose wives and children fear his short temper and explosive moodiness. What does Anima do in this case?

We can see it immediately if we let things take their natural course: wife and children will move away from him; a vacuum will form around him. At first, he will lament the callousness of his family and possibly behave even worse than before. That will make the distance absolute. If all good spirits do not desert him, he will notice his isolation after a while, and in his loneliness, he will begin to understand what caused the separation. He may ask himself in astonishment: <what kind of demon has fallen into me? <- Of course, without noticing the meaning of this metaphor. This is followed by regret, reconciliation, oblivion and soon a new explosion. Apparently, the Anima is trying to force a separation. Of course, this tendency is in nobody’s interest. The Anima pushes in between like a jealous lover who wants to alienate the man from his family. An office or other advantageous social position can do the same, but we understand the power of attraction there. But where does the Anima derive this power to exert such an attraction? According to the analogy with the persona, there should be values or other important and influential things like seductive promises behind them. In such moments, one must beware of rationalizations. It would seem natural to think that the man of honour is looking for another woman. This can be, or can even be arranged by the Anima as the most effective means to purpose. Such an arrangement should not be misunderstood as a purpose because the spotless man of honour who has married correctly according to the law can also divorce according to the law, which does not change his basic attitude one iota. The old picture just got a new frame……. to be continued. 🙏💖🖖