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Animus Aeternus: Exploring the Inner Masculine (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts)

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Deldon Anne McNeely takes the reader by the hand and enters a realm of Jungian psychology - the archetypes of animus and anima - and shares the empowerment of women who embrace the masculine aspect of their psyche in poetry. Her developmental statements seem rather cursory unless the reader is well versed in Jungian thought. But the end result of the book is to examine extended poems by Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Teresa of Avila, Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Edna St. Vincent Millay and others whose works demonstrate the aspect of animus in the generation of the poetic expression.

McNeely divides her book into chapters whose headings will give an idea of the spectrum of her thoughts: Unisex or Syzygy, Animus and Ego, Animus Types, Anger and Creativity, In the Mother-World, In the Father-World, Equal Partner - each of these chapters opens a vast discussion of the meaning of animus as it is expressed in the poets' works McNeely shares. This is not light reading: if the reader is not familiar with Karl Jung and his development of thought then there may be other books that will be useful before tackling this one. The time is worth it as McNeely addresses important issues that hep to understand the Feminine - from a fresh stance. Grady Harp, April 11

"Animus Aeternus" explores literature as well as psyche. And no, the rubber doesn't meet the road here: neither literature nor psychoanalysis is a car chase scene. But any single scene in this exploration can open a window into a dilemma that's ensnared someone for years. Some of them will be your story, some the stories of your friend, your mother, your sister, your daughter. The explication of Mary Oliver's "A Visitor" shone a light into my struggles with my father figure and my resolution of them. The comments on Anna Akhmatova's "The Guest" told of the aspects that are archetypal, that can be understood but will always exert their own power. I wept at passages in "Animus Aeternus," and when I closed it, I realized that in many ways this was literary criticism taken to another level, the level of psyche, using some of the more enigmatic poems of the 20th century as guideposts. I reexplore it in small pieces from time to time, the poems like small explosions deep within, the accompanying analysis the flash of insight that heals. Crazy Jane's line is relevant here: nothing can be sole or whole that has not been rent.

If you're searching (like I was) for a more concrete work that shows you where the rubber really meets the road when it comes to the role of the Animus in a woman's life, this one will let you down. It's an exploration--a meditation--on the meaning of Animus, tapestried with poetry and poetic ruminations on what the masculine aspect in women means--but it comes off a little disorganized. The balance between the psychological and the poetical just isn't there; nuggets of insight are scattered in a lot of self-indulgent dross.

Side note: If you're interested in individuation from strictly a woman's point of view, I highly recommend Awakening Woman: Dreams and Individuation by Nancy Qualls-Corbett (both analyst and analysand are female). Gerhard Adlers The living symbol; a case study in the process of individuation is suis generis (a male analyst and female analsyand).