The Animus

Barbara Hannah was a straightforward, modest-yet-grand woman, a lover of literature, and a colleague and friend of C. G. Jung, Emma Jung, and Marie-Louise von Franz. A first-generation Jungian psychologist, she was one of the original members of the Psychological Club of Zürich and one of the founders of the Jung Institute in Zürich. She lectured extensively in Switzerland and England and wrote several books on C. G. Jung and Jungian psychology.

These two volumes present her psychological analysis of the animus gleaned from handwritten notes, typed manuscripts, previously published articles, her own drafts of her lectures, and notes taken by those present. She tackled the theme of the animus with a comprehensiveness unsurpassed in Jungian literature. Her insight and vigor stem from a personal grappling with her own animus while integrating the experience and reflections of many psychotherapists who were working directly with C. G. Jung.

Authenticity and comprehensiveness were priorities in editing this work as well as preserving the excellence and comprehensiveness of her work on the animus—a most complex and vexing topic—while rendering the wonderful natural spirit of Barbara Hannah herself. Themes include the case of the sixteenth-century nun, Jeanne Fery, the animus in the Book of Tobit, literature generally (the Brontës in particular), and the meaning of the animus for modern women.

Volume 1 is the first volume in this two volume set and both are part of the Polarities of the Psyche series; the first two books in the series are Lectures on Jung’s Aion and The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals.

Barbara Hannah (1891–1986) was born in England. She went to Zürich in 1929 to study with Carl Jung and lived in Switzerland the rest of her life. A close associate of Jung until his death, she was a practicing psychotherapist and lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute. Her books available from Chiron include The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals; Encounters with the Soul; Jung, His Life and Work: A Biographical Memoir; and Striving Toward Wholeness.