The Animus: The Spirit of Inner Truth in Women, Volume 1

Fascinating book, very well written in a style that draws you in (i.e. not 'dry'). Very clear on a subject not publicised/explored enough.

An Interesting and useful perspective on management of the animus.

I enjoyed this book and just started the second volume. Very traditional notions of gender in both volumes which may contain some truth and wisdom at times but at others become too restrictive. We need some modern Jungian analyst writers who have more belief in the fact that gender is evolving and not rigidly fixed and can think more deeply about gender equality issues.

Hierbei handelt es sich um mitschriften von Barbara Hannah's Vorlesungen über den Animus. Hier vorab sei gesagt das nichts "outdated" also "veraltet" ist, da es sich hierbei um die "Innere Logik" des Animus handelt uns sich dies niemals ändert. Ob einen das Ideologisch passt oder nicht, spielt keine Rolle. Ob man Störungen lieber normalisiert haben möchte oder nicht spielt auch keine Rolle, dies ist auch eigentlich paradox, denn wenn alles "Normal" ist, braucht an auch keine Therapeuten mehr! AUch ist die "Analytiche Psychologie" keine materialistische Ideologie, d.h. "Die Gesellschaft" ist absolut egal und spielt keine Rolle, das "ego" ist nicht die höchste Autorität sondern wird vom Unbewussten stark beeinflusst. Die höchste "Autorität" liegt im inneren und nicht im Außen. Barbara Hannah legt hier Spekulative Ideen nah, die Gnostisch anmuten. Zum Beispiel wir der Animus hier als "Phallus" "Lover" bezeichnet, später von M. L. von Franz als Tat Kraft (..) bezeichnet, welches einen Entwicklungsprozess durchmacht. Das muss man hier schon berücksichtigen. Auch, da es Vorlesungen sind die nur zum Teil erhalten sind,wird es oftmals schwer zu folgen. Eins zwei Interessate Einblicke sind mit dabei doch muss man Berücksichtigen, das es keine(!) materialisierte Psycholoie ist und auch kein "Ego-Psychologie". Wer glaubt das über das "Ich" der Frau gesprochen wird und alles Volbewusst ausgeführt wird, hat fundamentae Dinge n i c h t Verstanden.

Je n'ai pas encore terminé de lire ce livre, mais déjà je peux dire qu'il est crucial de le lire surtout pour comprendre ce qu'est l'animus = un concept Jungien signifiant la partie inconsciente masculine chez la femme, et comment il influence son quotidien tant que cette partie n'est pas conscientisée.

Changed my life!

I'm only through the first volume and part way into the second, but I can't bear to delay praising this two-volume set. This is an incredibly rich and helpful collection of Barbara Hannah's lectures on the animus, bringing together years of her work. There is some repetition, entirely understandable considering the editorial task of bringing all this material together in two volumes. The editors have been meticulous in ensuring we don't miss anything and are careful to note where something may be repeated, as well as where psychiatric developments since the time of Barbara Hannah's lectures on the topic can reveal more about some of the cases discussed, particularly that of the medieval nun Jeanne Fery. I'm happy that I already had grown to respect Barbara Hannah's presentation of Jungian material so that I knew to snatch up these books as soon as they were available. I'm sure that some of this material repeats in other books in which Hannah discusses the animus, especially in Striving Towards Wholeness, which is still in my reading pile. But I'm getting more out of this collection than I've been able to find in bits and pieces as regards the animus in all my prior readings. The animus is difficult to find material on, since a lot of the writings on anima/animus have been more focused on the anima in men, and the animus can't be explored in precisely the same way. I used to try to replace anima with animus and male with female, thinking that would work to help me understand. It didn't. It's apparently more difficult for a woman to identify where her animus is influencing her in her day to day behavior and communications, and the animus presents itself somewhat differently than the anima to begin with. Barbara Hannah brings not only her work with Jung and other analysts, her extensive reading, and her work with clients to bear, but also her experience of the animus in her personal life and what worked for her in striving to come to terms with it. I don't recommend this for someone who is new to Jung. There are much better ways to introduce yourself to Jungian ideas. (Robert A. Johnson is probably the simplest place to begin.) I think without a solid foundation, you'd find yourself floundering about in this material. But for anyone ready to explore the animus in depth, this should be required reading.

I chose this book to begin to understand the feminine from Jung's perspective. Ms Hannah does an excellent job, but I was hoping that she would expand beyond Jung's ideas. She really does not.