the collective unconscious through the development of their anima or animus. The anima and the animus represent the unconscious. The anima and animus are not gender specific and men and women can have both, however, more empirical research is required to determine whether both men and women do possess both archetypes. Jungian cautions Jungians warned that "every personification of the unconscious – the shadow, the anima, the animus, and the Self – has both a light and a dark aspect. ... the anima and animus have dual aspects: They can bring life-giving development and creativeness to the personality, or they can cause petrification and physical death". One danger was of what Jung termed "invasion" of the conscious by the unconscious archetype: "Possession caused by the anima ... bad taste: the anima surrounds herself with inferior people". Jung insisted that "a state of anima possession ... must be prevented. The anima is thereby forced into the inner world, where she functions as the medium between the ego and the unconscious, as does the persona between the ego and the environment". Alternatively, over-awareness of the anima or animus could provide a premature conclusion to the individuation process – "a kind of psychological short-circuit, to identify the animus at least provisionally with wholeness". Instead of being "content with an intermediate position", the animus seeks to usurp "the self, with which the patient's animus identifies. This identification is a regular occurrence when the shadow, the dark side, has not been sufficiently realized". See also References Further reading The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships by John A. Sanford (Paperback – Jan 1, 1979). External links Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism website Sample image with scholarly commentary: Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux Jung on the anima and animus Analytical psychology Jungian archetypes