"The persona, the ideal picture of a man as he should be, is inwardly compensated by feminine weakness, and as the individual outwardly plays the strong man, so he becomes inwardly a woman, i.e., the anima, for it is the anima that reacts to the persona. But because the inner world is dark and invisible to the extraverted consciousness, and because a man is all the less capable of conceiving his weaknesses the more he is identified with the persona, the persona's counterpart, the anima, remains completely in the dark and is at once projected, so that our hero comes under the heel of his wife's slipper. If this results in a considerable increase of her power, she will acquit herself none too well. She becomes inferior, thus providing her husband with the welcome proof that it is not he, the hero, who is inferior in private, but his wife. In return the wife can cherish the illusion, so attractive to many, that at least she has married a hero, unperturbed by her own uselessness. This little game of illusion is often taken to be the whole meaning of life."
React to this quote
More by Carl Jung
See allResonant Thoughts
"Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to think He will. Therefore constan…"
"Two biases of memory, however, tend to enhance the illusory nature of our retrospective “understanding” of our own and others’ lives. The first is that we tend to overestimate specific events relative…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"...as a Christian and patriot, could not look on while systematic attempts were made, almost in every depar…"
— Albert Lutuli"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are"
— Rick Riordan"If shame is cried upon him, … he will point out … that today he has to earn his living, and that it is not …"
— Julien Benda"His complaint of court life was the same as is made of government at the top in any age: it was composed of…"
— Barbara Tuchman"A timeline of his life"
— Crazy Horse"In this age few tragedies are written. It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes a…"
— Arthur Miller
