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In the book Man and His Symbols Jung discusses the Anima and Animus extensively. As I understand it they are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the collective unconscious. The Anima is expressed as the inner feminine personality in the unconscious of man; the Animus as the inner masculine personality of the unconscious of female

I found it strange that Jung only talks about the Anima in terms of the male psyche, and the Animus in term of the female psyche.

My question is why isn't there an Animus concept in the male psyche or an Anima concept in the female psyche?

Where is the archetype of the male part of the male unconscious and the female part of the female unconscious? Is that just another piece of the psyche the Jung defines as part of the Self? Where does the Animus live in the male total psyche?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi Ebrohman, You seem to be asking four different questions. Could you please narrow it down, because the questions, as is, will be difficult to answer, or the the answer will be extremely long. $\endgroup$
    – Robin Kramer-ten Have
    Commented Nov 23, 2016 at 8:13
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    $\begingroup$ @RobinKramer the question is asking about the absence of a same sex anthropomorphic archetype, thats the crux of it. $\endgroup$
    – ebrohman
    Commented Nov 23, 2016 at 13:21

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Jung outlines this pretty clearly in both Aion and Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. I strongly recommend those books to anyone attempting to gain a deeper understanding of these concepts in particular. I found the first few chapters of Aion to be particularly enlightening.

There are many anthropomorphic symbols representing archetypes in the human psyche. The Hero and the Shadow are also two other principle figures. If you check out Jung's Symbols of Transformation, he outlines the Hero and a couple other principle archetypes in great detail.

The short answer to your questions is that every individual does have anthropomorphic representations of both psychological tones (i.e. masculine and feminine); but it is rather that the inferior form which has the same tone as you is referred to as your Shadow, while the inferior form of opposite tone is your Anima/Animus. So, for example, a man does not have an Animus, but one would find through psychoanalysis that his inferior masculine function consists of primary traits which he disdains regarding himself. This is a bit wonky wording in trying to be as honest to Jung as possible, and it would be more technically correct to assert that the symbols your Shadow occupies or manifests before you (in the case of the man) are characterized by anthropomorphic figures which have character traits which disgust you or which you detest. The Anima is then your central feminine figure and the thing responsible for your projects of 'love' and such things like that. The same is true mutatis mutandis for women.

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From the way I understand it, everyone, male or female has both masculine and feminine personalities and it is up to the subjects whether they recognise that or not and to what level. The idea is that in order to become all you can be you need to integrate yourself with your inner opposite sex.

The animus within the woman and the anima within the man are the opposing personalities to their sex and how they are 'supposed' to behave. An example would be that if a man has a strongly developed anima (fully accepted and integrated into his psyche) the man will be fully open to emotionality.

The article from Wikipedia and this good article from Psychology Today may help.

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    $\begingroup$ This doesn't really address the question I asked. I could just as easily say, "The idea is that in order to become all you can be you need to integrate yourself with your inner same sex," which is true insofar as integrating with the opposite is true. The question is asking about the absence of a same-sex anthropomorphic archetype (save maybe...the Self). $\endgroup$
    – ebrohman
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 20:54
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I think that Jung probably felt that the Animus it the base of every man's psyche and that the Anima the base of every woman's psyche. You can have differences regarding how much of the other sex's psyche you have in you, but it's not necessary to speak about an Anima for women when it's just a "woman's psyche" and vice versa for men.

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    $\begingroup$ I think Jung believed the Self to be the base of the psyche, male or female. He liked to call it the "nucleus". $\endgroup$
    – ebrohman
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 0:39
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    $\begingroup$ I didn't know that but yet I can't see another reason for not mentioning Animus for men and Anima for women. $\endgroup$
    – Rolexel
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 7:54

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