Carl Jung: It is correct to say that women are more dependent on the idea and men more dependent on the Primordial image.

To Gerda Hipert

Dear Frau Hipert, 17 March 1937

You have seen quite correctly that the attitude-type remains more or less constant but that the function-type
is subject to all manner of changes in the course of life.

During a practical analysis you can observe an extremely interesting transition from the differentiated function to its auxiliary function and from this to its counter-function and thence to the undifferentiated or inferior function.

You are right when you say that ethical values are the product of a highly differentiated feeling function.

Naturally the intellect also plays a part in working out and formulating an ethic, but the decisive contents all come from feeling.

You are right, too, about the difference between men and women in relation to the idea.

It is correct to say that women are more dependent on the idea and men more dependent on the Primordial image.

Naturally this is true only of those women in whom the idea functions at all, just as the primordial
image becomes effective only when a man takes account of feeling.

There is as yet no literature on the animus problem except for my wife's essay "Ein Beitrag zum Problem des Animus" in Wirklichkeit der Seele, Rascher, Zurich.

It is true, of course, that inability to express oneself is a defect and in a deeper sense a fault in so far as it is incumbent upon people to realize their psychic contents whether in words, images, or deeds.

But since different types do in fact exist, and men and women besides, one simply cannot imagine any form of words or any image

that could express a content with absolute validity and absolute conviction.

What is the most perfect and clearest expression for one person can be a dead formula or a bewildering complication for another.

This is due partly to the fact that human beings are defective in some way, but also to the fact that every conceivable expression is necessarily one-sided, for what is idea is not word and what is word is not deed, though all three should be one.

Such completeness and perfection is only a religious legend but unfortunately never a reality in the usual sense of the word.

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol I, Pages 230-231

https://aras.org/concordance/content/gerda-hipert-3-20-1937


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Great Sites to visit:

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2. Steve Jung-Hearted Parker's Jung Currents http://jungcurrents.com/


3. Frith Luton's Jungian Dream Analysis and Psychotherapy: http://frithluton.com/articles/