Author Topic: Animi Dream Collection  (Read 2057 times)

Matt Koeske

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Animi Dream Collection
« on: July 12, 2007, 03:44:20 PM »

Hey Y'all,

I just had an idea.  Please let me know what you think.

I have often felt that there is not enough documentation of animus dreams.  I remember a while back on Kaleidoscope banging the drum for more people to share their anima and animus dreams so they could be cross-compared for commonalities . . . a kind of data collection for animi dream themes.

This idea has resurfaced, but this time a bit more formally.  What would you think about making an anonymous non-member category here on Useless Science for people to submit their animi dreams (preferably with associations, but not with interpretations).  Perhaps it would be best to ask for the dreamer's age and maybe nationality or cultural background (?), oh and sexual orientation, definitely . . . but names should not be used.  Even for those of us who wouldn't mind sharing with our names attached.  Anyone could post such dreams for this collection without even signing up for membership.

Of course, the audience here is so small, we would probably have to do something to get the word out.  Maybe we could get the Jung Page and/or some other Jungian or dream interpretation website to post an announcement for us?

If enough dream data could be collected, I think this would prove quite an important resource for Jungian study.

I was reminded of the idea by two things I recently encountered.  The first was Sealchan's dream dictionary project (which I think is a great idea).  The second was a recent conversation about the animus I read on Kaleidoscope.  I found the conversation (as I tend to find all conversations on K) frustrating.  There are never any resolutions, innovations, of syntheses in the K conversations, just a lot of heads butting into one another until everyone crawls away groaning and bruised or the thread gets locked by the admin.

This particular conversation centered around an article that criticized Jung for his sexism (regarding the anima and animus concepts).  Such criticism is certainly warranted in my opinion.  But the article brought up one of the old Jungian conundrums regarding the animus.  Namely, the animus is so negatively portrayed by Jung and his followers (even the women) that many, modern, feminist-educated women have no interest whatsoever in embracing even the possibility that they "have an animus".  Although I understand that specific reactionism, especially in the context of Jungian sexism, I can think of no worse idea in the long history of bad Jungian ideas than the elimination of the animus notion.

We can't eliminate an instinct because we don't understand it or like the way it affects us.  But yes, the idea that the animus is some little demonic figure in the psyche that makes women "think poorly" is absolute rubbish and should be tossed.  But we have to honor the adage about the baby and the bathwater.

In any case, I thought that such confusion about the value and reality of the animus could be eliminated if we just had more dream data that fleshed out the animus.  I would like to have the opportunity to learn more from such data, personally.  But also, the Jungian community is definitely hurting for its lack of knowing what to do with the animus concept (and, by extension, with the animus instinct itself).

Although there is more dream and fantasy data from men describing the anima, I also feel there has been a distinct lack of categorization.  Jung proposed a series of stages of anima manifestation (and I concur with his proposal), but the anima work is in just as much need of a fleshing out as the animus work. 

So what do you folks think, can we pull this off?  Help me brainstorm how best to do this . . . how best to encourage people to contribute to the study.

Thanks,
Matt
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