Post by Auburn on Dec 28, 2015 5:44:21 GMT -5
Preliminary - Definition of the Anima:
The projection-forming factor is the anima. Wherever she appears in dreams, phantasies or visions, she appears personified, thereby demonstrating that basically she possesses all the outstanding characteristics of a female person.
She is not an invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous production of the unconscious; neither is she a substitute figure for the mother. On the contrary, there is every likelihood that those numinous attributes which make the Mother imago so dangerously powerful derive from the collective archetype, the anima, which is incarnated anew in every male child. (source)
"The anima is a personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man's psyche, such as vague feelings and moods, prophetic hunches, receptiveness to the irrational, capacity for personal love, feeling for nature, and - last but not least - his relation to the unconscious. It is no mere chance that in olden times priestesses (like the Greek Sibyl) were used to fathom the divine will and to make connection with the gods. In its individual manifestation the character of a man's anima is as a rule shaped by his mother. If he feels that his mother had a negative influence on him, his anima will often express itself in irritable, depressed moods, uncertainty, insecurity, and touchiness. (If, however, he is able to overcome the negative assaults on himself, they can even serve to reinforce his masculinity.)"
"The most frequent manifestation of the anima takes the form of erotic fantasy. Men may be driven to nurse their fantasies by looking at films and strip-tease shows, or by day-dreaming over pornographic material. This is a crude, primitive aspect of the anima, which becomes compulsive only when a man does not sufficiently cultivate his feeling relationships - when his feeling attitude toward life has remained infantile. All these aspects of the anima have the same tendency that we have observed in the shadow: That is, they can be projected so that they appear to the man to be the qualities of some particular woman."
"It is the presence of the anima that causes a man to fall suddenly in love when he sees a woman for the first time and knows at once that this is "she." In this situation, the man feels as if he has known this woman intimately for all time; he falls for her so helplessly that it looks to outsiders like complete madness. Women who are of "fairy-like" character especially attract such anima projections, because men can attribute almost anything to a creature who is so fascinatingly vague, and can thus proceed to weave fantasies around her. The projection of the anima in such a sudden and passionate form as a love affair can greatly disturb a man's marriage and can lead to the so-called "human triangle," with its accompanying difficulties. A bearable solution to such a drama can be found only if the anima is recognized as an inner power."
"The secret aim of the unconscious in bringing about such an entanglement is to force a man to develop and to bring his own being to maturity by integrating more of his unconscious personality and bringing it into his real life." (source)
It's been my experience that Eastern cultures are far more receptive to the contents of the inner human, and this sensitivity manifests (as the psyche always does) through fantasy. In all cultures, fantasy, dreams, folklore, mythology and religion are the avenues which most freely express the characteristics of the human collective unconscious. But folklore is not something to be contained solely in the past. Indeed, we re-tell these stories endlessly alongside the evolution of our storytelling mediums. This thread is dedicated to how the Anima consistently manifests in Japanese culture and animation.
The anima is, in short, the woman in men. There are certain secondary female sexual features in male. On the psychological plane we talk about the soul, or sensuality as opposed to rationality and reason (animus). But anima is much more than the sexual and psychological aspects. It is relational. That is, the anima archetype rules over the relationship between men and women. It is a kind of innate guide that leads one through the ambiguous path of meeting the woman and interact with her.The most known anima image is the mother archetype. It rules over the mother-son relationship. Therefore it is projected onto the mother image. We know of such female figures from the cultural and religious themes. Virgin Mary or Mother Earth and other such mythical figures may lead us to the mother archetype. (source)
The projection-forming factor is the anima. Wherever she appears in dreams, phantasies or visions, she appears personified, thereby demonstrating that basically she possesses all the outstanding characteristics of a female person.
She is not an invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous production of the unconscious; neither is she a substitute figure for the mother. On the contrary, there is every likelihood that those numinous attributes which make the Mother imago so dangerously powerful derive from the collective archetype, the anima, which is incarnated anew in every male child. (source)
"The anima is a personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man's psyche, such as vague feelings and moods, prophetic hunches, receptiveness to the irrational, capacity for personal love, feeling for nature, and - last but not least - his relation to the unconscious. It is no mere chance that in olden times priestesses (like the Greek Sibyl) were used to fathom the divine will and to make connection with the gods. In its individual manifestation the character of a man's anima is as a rule shaped by his mother. If he feels that his mother had a negative influence on him, his anima will often express itself in irritable, depressed moods, uncertainty, insecurity, and touchiness. (If, however, he is able to overcome the negative assaults on himself, they can even serve to reinforce his masculinity.)"
"The most frequent manifestation of the anima takes the form of erotic fantasy. Men may be driven to nurse their fantasies by looking at films and strip-tease shows, or by day-dreaming over pornographic material. This is a crude, primitive aspect of the anima, which becomes compulsive only when a man does not sufficiently cultivate his feeling relationships - when his feeling attitude toward life has remained infantile. All these aspects of the anima have the same tendency that we have observed in the shadow: That is, they can be projected so that they appear to the man to be the qualities of some particular woman."
"It is the presence of the anima that causes a man to fall suddenly in love when he sees a woman for the first time and knows at once that this is "she." In this situation, the man feels as if he has known this woman intimately for all time; he falls for her so helplessly that it looks to outsiders like complete madness. Women who are of "fairy-like" character especially attract such anima projections, because men can attribute almost anything to a creature who is so fascinatingly vague, and can thus proceed to weave fantasies around her. The projection of the anima in such a sudden and passionate form as a love affair can greatly disturb a man's marriage and can lead to the so-called "human triangle," with its accompanying difficulties. A bearable solution to such a drama can be found only if the anima is recognized as an inner power."
"The secret aim of the unconscious in bringing about such an entanglement is to force a man to develop and to bring his own being to maturity by integrating more of his unconscious personality and bringing it into his real life." (source)
It's been my experience that Eastern cultures are far more receptive to the contents of the inner human, and this sensitivity manifests (as the psyche always does) through fantasy. In all cultures, fantasy, dreams, folklore, mythology and religion are the avenues which most freely express the characteristics of the human collective unconscious. But folklore is not something to be contained solely in the past. Indeed, we re-tell these stories endlessly alongside the evolution of our storytelling mediums. This thread is dedicated to how the Anima consistently manifests in Japanese culture and animation.
