The Anima
Latin: soul
The feminine image in the psyche of a man.
The Anima: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In Jung’s account the anima is the feminine figure in the unconscious of a man: the image of woman he carries, met first in his mother and projected onto the women who fascinate him. She stands between consciousness and the deeper unconscious, and so appears as guide, temptress, muse, or soul. Where a man is seized, bewitched, or moved beyond reason, Jung looked for her.
He described her development in four stages, which he named after Eve, Helen, Mary, and Sophia. Later Jungians have questioned the strict pairing of the anima with men and the animus with women; Jung himself drew both from the lives of his own time.
The Anima: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Beatrice leading Dante, Goethe’s “Eternal Feminine” that draws us on, Rider Haggard’s She, which Jung cited often, the Lorelei and the sirens, and Sophia, the Wisdom of the biblical books and of Gnostic myth.
From the Sources
Jung holds that the complementary character of the soul extends to the sex-character: a very feminine woman has a masculine soul, and a very manly man a feminine soul.
“That the complementary character of the soul is also concerned with the sex-character is a fact which can no longer seriously be doubted. A very feminine woman has a masculine soul, and a very manly man a feminine soul.”
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types or The Psychology of Individuation, Chapter XI, 'Definitions', no. 48, 'Soul', p. 594. Translated by H. Godwin Baynes, M.B., B.C. Cantab; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc. (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Jung writes that the repression of feminine traits and dispositions leads to their heaping up in the unconscious, and that the imago of woman, the soul, becomes the receptacle of these demands.
“The repression of feminine traits and dispositions leads naturally to a heaping up of these tendencies in the unconscious. But just as naturally the imago of woman (the soul) becomes the receptacle of these demands.”
C. G. Jung, M.D., LL.D., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 'The Relation of the Ego to the Unconscious', Part II, Chapter II, 'Anima and Animus', p. 203. Authorized translation by H. G. and C. F. Baynes; London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1928 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Reference to the Anima Concept” (1936), CW 9i
- “The Syzygy: Anima and Animus,” in Aion, CW 9ii
- “The Psychology of the Transference” (1946), CW 16, for the four stages
- Emma Jung, Animus and Anima (1957)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Anima and animus, Soul.
Also among The Persons of the Psyche
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Anima.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/anima.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Salome (The blind daughter) · Sophia (Wisdom, Hagia Sophia) · The Butterfly (Psyche)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Androgyne: Male and female in one body: the opposites united. The Angel: The messenger between the worlds. The Anthropos: The first man, whose body is the world.