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 Zurich and one of the founders of the Jung Institute in Zurich. 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 and the Brontës in particular, and the meaning of the animus for modern women.

Volume 2 is the second 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.”