In the Spirit of His Time

Jung’s conception, his articulation, and his relationship to the anima and animus and then more current thoughts and relationships to them, a deeper understanding of the archetype and its future manifestations in the unconscious are examined. When one considers how Jung developed his theory of the anima and animus and the gender-bias that he demonstrates in his articulation of the concept, one can understand why the concept was then, and continues to be, difficult to grasp. Jung was a product of his time and so it is with the changes in gender roles and the rise in awareness of the LGBTQ community that new ideas are surfacing about how to view the archetypes of anima and animus. Within this research, Hillman and other post-Jungian theorists lend their opinions and elucidations of the anima/animus archetype with major revisions and questions raised for consideration. Connections between contemporary gender issues are addressed, especially feminism and transgenderism. Questions for further research and consideration such as the relationship between psychic reality, biological reality, and neurological reality and the relationships between the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious in relation to gender are posed. To conclude, Jung seems to have moved into a place of greater wisdom and relation to his unconscious material over the course of his life, perhaps signalling future relations between anima and animus, i.e. the inner other gendered archetype, in both individuals and society.