Animus, Psyche and Culture

Book excerpt: Animus, Psyche and Culture takes Carl Jung’s concept of contra-sexual psyche and locates it within the cultural expanse of India, using ethnographic narratives, history, religion, myth, films, biographical extracts to deliberate on the feminine in psychological, social and archetypal realms. Jung’s concept of unconscious contra-sexuality, based on notions of feminine Eros and masculine Logos, was pioneering in his time, but took masculine and feminine to be fixed and essential attributes of gender in the psyche. This book explores the relevance of the animus, examining its rationale in current contexts of gender fluidity. Taking off from Post Jungian critiques, it proposes an exposition of the animus in history, social and religious phenomena, theories of knowledge, psychoid archetype and synchronicity, to grasp its nuances in diverse cultural worlds. This study re-envisions the notion of animus keeping in mind the intricacies of feminine subjectivity and the diversity of cultural worlds where depth psychological ideas are currently emerging. A remarkable reworking of Jungian ideas, this well-researched and important new book will be an insightful read for Jungian analysts and scholars with an interest in cultural and gender studies.