She

The concept is never the experience.  Often the theoretical approach  to the archetypes tends to posit a system, which like a house of cards, collapses without a foundation.

Art on the other hand gives the experience of the archetypes expression.  And the analytic encounter works from the archetypal contents manifesting in dreams.  In both cases, the archetype itself is the basis of the activity.

The idea of the Anima/Animus, the counter-sexual soul figure, is easy to dismiss if the reality of the archetype remains unconscious.  Though it seems simple enough, being aware of the idea is not the same as being conscious of the experience.

So… where is she?

That’s the question which opens this field.

“I mean this as an actual technique…The art of it consists only in allowing our invisible partner to make herself heard, in putting the mechanism of expression momentarily at her disposal, without becoming overcome by the distaste one naturally feels at playing such an apparently ludicrous game with oneself, or by doubts as to the genuineness of the voice of ones interlocutor.” Carl Jung, CW 7, par 323.