Discovery of the Self

"inner powers of the opposite sex, anima and animus; and finally, there is the discovery of the Self.

TO ME IT SEEMS TO MAKE SENSE to talk about the practical side of psychological work first, since in my experience misunderstandings between experts in different fields arise principally from their having too little down-to-earth contact with each other’s specialized material. C. G. Jung’s basic views on the discovery of the Self, which he called individuation, are taken as premises here: the first stage is the integration of the shadow; the second is the assimilation of the

The shadow is a collective designation for the most varied characteristics of the ego personality—in our culture usually inferior, natural or instinctive, or even evil characteristics—that have been repressed through education or personal abhorrence.

The anima comprises the positive and negative—for the most part also repressed—feminine characteristics in a man. In its positive aspect it is feminine empathy or sensitivity, sometimes also the sense of feeling, eros, artistic tendencies, love of nature, acceptance of the validity of the irrational. Negatively, it is moodiness, irritability, subjective judgment, whininess, hypochondria, sentimentality.

The animus in a woman manifests positively as initiative, depth of thought, consistency, courage, sense of religious truth; negatively as rigid opinionatedness, brutality, exaggeratedly masculine behavior, and so on.

The main aspect of the Self is numinosity itself—that which is ultimately supreme, a revelation of “the meaning of life,” the divine inner psychic center, the inner peace beyond all conflict, that which is experienced as the absolute inner truth."

Marie-Louise von Franz, Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche