The term “Jungian feminists” can be applied to feminist Jungian analysts and to feminist scholars of Jungian theories.
The theories of Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) about the psychology of women and the feminine were radical for their time, but it is important to set them in context and note that the major goal of first-wave feminism – women’s universal suffrage – was not achieved in his Swiss homeland until 10 years after his death. In Jung’s lifetime, the dominant societal view was that women were either inferior to men or “equal but different” with biologically determined spheres of influence and role.
Jung was aware that as a man there were deficiencies in his understanding of women (Jung 1927/1970, p. 117; para. 240). Nevertheless, he was often blind to his own social conditioning. Jung considered that our inner relationship with the contra-sexual “other” in the psyche – for a man his anima, for a woman her animus– was fundamental for psychological health and for constructive...
Bibliography
Bolen, J. S. (1984). Goddesses in everywoman: A new psychology of women. New York: Harper & Row.
Bolen, J. S. (1984/2014). Gods in everyman: Archetypes that shape men’s lives. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
Bolen, J. S. (1999/2003). The millionth circle: How to change ourselves and the world: The essential guide to women’s circles. Berkeley: Conari Press.
Christ, C. P. (1979). Why women need the Goddess: Phenomenological, psychological, and political reflections. In C. P. Christ & J. Plaskow (Eds.), Womanspirit rising: A feminist reader in religion (pp. 273–286). San Francisco: Harper.
Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Boston: Beacon Press.
Goldenberg, N. R. (1976/1990). A feminist critique of Jung. R. L. Moore, D. J. Meckel (Eds.), Jung and Christianity in dialogue: Faith, feminism and hermeneutics (pp. 104–111). Mahwah: Paulist Press.
Harding, M. E. (1935/1955/1971). Women’s mysteries ancient and modern: A psychological interpretation of the feminine principle as portrayed in myth, story and dreams. London: Rider & Company.
Jung, C. G. (1927/1970). Women in Europe. In C. G. Jung (Ed.), The collected works of C.G. Jung, vol. 10, civilization in transition (pp. 113–133). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1951/1968). The syzygy: Anima and animus. In C. G. Jung (Ed.), The collected works of C. G. Jung, vol. 9, part 2, Aion: researches into the phenomenology of the self (pp. 11–22). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, E. (1957). Animus and anima: Two essays. Zürich: Spring Publications.
Lauter, E., & Rupprecht, C. S. (1985). Introduction. In E. Lauter & C. S. Rupprecht (Eds.), Feminist archetypal theory: Interdisciplinary re-visons of Jungian thought (pp. 3–22). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Neumann, E. (1955/1963). The Great Mother: An analysis of the archetype. (R. Manheim, Trans.) Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Perera, S. B. (1981). Descent to the Goddess: A way of initiation for women, studies in Jungian psychology by Jungian analysts no. 6. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Rowland, S. (1999). C. G. Jung and literary theory: The challenge from fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rowland, S. (2002). Jung: A feminist revision. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Samuels, A. (1997). Introduction: Jung and the post-Jungians. In P. Young-Eisendrath & T. Dawson (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Jung (pp. 1–13). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ulanov, A. B. (1971). The feminine in Jungian psychology and in Christian theology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Wehr, D. S. (1987/1988). Jung and feminism: Liberating archetypes. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Wolff, T. (1934/1941). A few thoughts on the process of individuation in women. Spring, 81–103.
Young-Bruehl, E. (2009). Women and children first! Modern Psychoanalysis, 34(2), 52–75.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Crowley, V. (2020). Jungian Feminists. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200080
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200080
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences