How Does Carl Jung’s Mother Archetype Influence Personality Development in Males?
Archetypes are primordial psychic structures common to a particular species. They are the living-active dispositions influencing our conscious state, our thoughts, and emotions. In fact, every aspect of the human form from the physical to the psychological is influenced by archetypes.
The nature of archetypes is quite intriguing for they are the structures that precede the contents of the form, making it one of the most challenging psychic components to study. The manifestation of its contents does not take a universal form much like the axis of a crystal that “determines only the stereometric structure and not the concrete form of the individual crystal. The only thing that remains constant is the axial system, or rather, the invariable geometric proportions underlying it. The same is true for archetypes.” — Jung
The archetype takes shape only when it becomes conscious. The contents fill in the spacial structure designed by the archetype. While the form is inherited, the contents depend on various conscious factors.
Similarly, the appearance of the mother archetype is not dependent on the mother figure alone but on several factors constituting the varying degrees of the archetype.
What is the mother archetype?
The mother archetype is the umbrella term for all psychic structures either literal, figurative, mythological, or philosophical creating the mother symbolism. In the literal sense, it includes all the mother figures in your life — mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, or any woman with whom you share a relationship. Secondly, there are symbolic mothers. These are all your goddesses from various cultures, the most common ones being the Mother of God, the Virgin, and Sophia. Thirdly, mythology offers many variations such as Maha Sati Anasuya — the embodiment of chastity and purity, a maiden in the myth of Demeter and Kore, the Cybele-Attis myth, etc. It is also associated with various inanimate symbols like the cornucopia — the horn of plenty that symbolizes abundance, a garden, cave, tree, spring, etc.
The mother archetype exhibits a dual symbolism. She is characterized as both a loving and terrible mother. The loving mother is associated with all things maternal that impart and cherish the authority of the female fostering growth and fertility. She is sympathetic, wise, and instinctive. “Sankhya philosophy has elaborated the mother archetype into the concept of Prakriti (matter) and assigned to it the three gunas or fundamental attributes: sattva, rajas, tamas: goodness, passion, and darkness.” The mother archetype has three essential aspects — her wholesome & unconditional goodness, inherent emotionality, and her bottomless abyss.
The loving & terrible mother archetype is the Indian Goddess of Death, Kali. She defies the norms of the loving mother archetype for her paradoxical character, but despite her destructive instincts she is loved and worshipped for her destruction is perceived as an act of love and not hate. She represents anything hidden, dark, and secret that seduces and poisons and is destructive in nature.
Mother archetype’s influence on son’s personality
Pertaining to gender differences, the mother archetype manifests differently in males and females. The anima which is the feminine energy does not appear in pure form in the male psyche and remains unintegrated. The mother consciously or unconsciously influences her son’s psyche as with time he becomes more aware of her femininity and she of his masculinity. Its effects can be seen in homosexuality & Don Juanism, where in the former case, “the son’s entire heterosexuality is tied to the mother in an unconscious form” and in the latter, “he unconsciously seeks his mother in every woman her meets”. — C G Jung
Hence, along with the mother, the significant female counterpart of the man plays an important role in the way the mother archetype unfolds in the son’s life.
“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 (the inner voice is female). But because the inner world is dark and invisible … 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.” — C G Jung
The anima is in a compensatory relationship with the persona. Its projection is a mechanism to compensate for the dominant conscious attitude of the man.
“The tyrant tormented by bad dreams, gloomy forebodings, and inner fears is a typical figure. Outwardly ruthless, harsh, and unapproachable, he jumps inwardly at every shadow, is at the mercy of every mood, as though he were the feeblest and most impressionable of men. Thus his anima contains all those fallible human qualities his persona lacks. If the persona is intellectual, the anima will certainly be sentimental.” — C G Jung
Jung describes four stages of anima evolution in the psyche of a man as known in the late classical period. The anima complex progresses through these stages as the man gets older.
Stage I: Jung named this stage Eve where the anima and personal mother are identical. When this archetype is dominant, the man cannot function without a woman.
Stage II: Also called Helen, this stage is dominated by sexual eros. The man perceives the woman on an aesthetic and sexual level.
Stage III: In this stage the archetype, Mary manifests in religious feelings where the man spiritualizes women. This also forms the basis of lasting relationships.
Stage IV: Also called Sophia — the goddess of Wisdom, here the anima complex serves as a guide to decipher the meaning of life. The woman becomes the muse of an artist’s life.
Until the anima is made conscious, he will unconsciously seek women to play the role of his mother, the unconscious priori image controlling the relationship dynamic with his wife. It is important to note that irrespective of the man’s awareness of his anima, he will inevitably project it onto his partner. Awareness only brings clarity regarding which aspect of the anima one is projecting.
A son can either be attracted or repelled by the persona of his mother. Since archetype is synonymous with structure, awareness may help in the integration of the personal contents but its effect on the persona cannot be expended. According to Jung, if encountering your shadow is the “apprentice-piece” then integrating one’s anima is no less than a “master-piece”.
To learn more, please check out my article on the proof of archetypes.
