# Describe how you see your anima and opposing personality complex



## zallla (Oct 11, 2011)

*Perhaps because of their rather fascinating aspects, I'd be curious to know how do you see your anima ie inferior function and your opposing personality complex (Xy-->Xz). Anima is projected onto those we fall in love with, the opposing complex is the bad boy or whore we lust after in the opposing sex (no wonder this is so intriguing). So, are you aware of how those could affect your life and preferences?*


I've been thinking about these and I think I could give one example of what could be anima related (describing it would be impossible so I prefer video here). I don't know, it's a bit unclear to me if this could be projected onto someone of the same sex but whatever, I am personally very attracted to this singer: 






Ah, she's just _so lovely_, I've listened and watched the song so many times in a state of innocent infatuation. I wonder if she's my anima, could be. It's really hard to verbalize my attraction, it's her looks, smile, manners, singing, body movements, dancing all together. She's just adorable to me.

I also tried to think what I really _lust_ after in the opposite sex (could it be the same sex too?), what would my bad boy look like? I could see it being someone a bit jaunty and bold with come hither look, someone who leaves me little need for hesitation or thinking. You know, someone with outspoken and naughty suggestions for me, the music example could be songs I try to think are really awful, like Bloodhound Gang's _The Bad Touch_. But I don't really know what does that tell about me.



For those who are not aware of what I'm talking about I'm quoting Eric B's definitions of those (hoping he won't mind) because well they really made me so curious about this in the first place and also illustrate the issue really well.



Eric B said:


> *ANIMA (inferior, aspirational)*
> What it is about, and which function it encases:
> 
> Shaped largely by the parent of the opposite sex, projected onto those we fall in love with, and encases the inferior function.
> ...





Eric B said:


> *OPPOSING PERSONALITY COMPLEX*
> What it is about, and which function it encases:
> 
> _Stubborn_ about things in the associated perspective. It's defending the dominant perspective in its opposite orientation.
> Also usually contrasexual, like the anima/animus; it seems to be what we "lust" after in the opposite sex. While the anima is "madonna" or the "nice guy" we "love" in the opposite sex, this complex is the "whore" or "bad boy". (My own observation).


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## Surreal Snake (Nov 17, 2009)

The Anima

he opened up emotion
he accepted female spirituality
he took it within to begin again
to conquer what he was
to expand complete
to wash his thoughts in crystal drops
to find that center of remember
denial was the trial with a jury of pearls
he manifested a new world
and the spiral spun

I put my definition in a poem..


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## zallla (Oct 11, 2011)

@Surreal Snake, your anima is just as beautiful as mine - it was beautifully phrased


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## Surreal Snake (Nov 17, 2009)

zallla said:


> @Surreal Snake, your anima is just as beautiful as mine - it was beautifully phrased


I really enjoyed reading yours.Very well written.Thanks kindly


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## Eric B (Jun 18, 2010)

Both anima and Opposing Personality are "normally the opposite gender. Now, if you're saying it's her you are attracted to (not what she's singing, etc. then if you're gay or bi (or pan, demi, etc), I'm not ecactly sure how that works. I've heard Beebe himself is gay, yet he always describes an "anima" for himself (an Si "Chinese laundress"). Then again, he does specify "usually". But I've still never heard of anyone having a same gender anima/animus (but then, how many people do I know who are familiar with Beebe's model).

The anima and Opposing Personality are both complexes, or archetypes that have been personalized. These are projected onto the other person. It's not what they really are, necessarily. So it's possible that you can still have a male animus and OP, but for some reason you project it onto a female. That doesn't mean you see her as a male, but that some sense of "otherness" that has a subconscious masculine undertone that you would project. Regardless of your orientation, if you're a self-identifying female, then "maleness" will carry a sense of "otherness" (as does your inferior function). Unless homosexual feelings simply draw you romantically to sameness rather than otherness. I myself do not understand what exactly is behind homosexual feelings; I imagine it's something neurochemical.

There might also be the "solar/lunar" dynamic I discussed in a new thread I started yesterday. Lunar (receptivity) is usually associated with female, while solar (aggressiveness) is male, but both genders really have both, yet might disown the one opposite of typical cultural expectations (females have this problem less than males).


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

Yea and adding to what @_Eric B_ said you also have to take into consideration idealized self. Sometimes people project their own idealized self onto a love interest. Jung speaks of people who would come to him swearing about some anima figure in their life and upon further deduction, Jung would find out the person was really talking about an idealized persona or self image. Many people may actually be put off or reject their anima consciously. Usually anima is the compensation of the persona, one of the reasons its fairly unconscious for most people. So people have developed personas, ways of presenting themselves to the world (or masks that society has placed upon them, usually a combination of the two) and the anima represents the repressed aspects of that persona. 

So a really manly man might be attracted to a woman who represents all of the things he's rejected from his own persona (you might see him go after really girly women for example). A tomboyish woman might be attracted to a softer more feminine man. Anima/animus is typically compensatory. Its common to see wallflowers and shy people be madly attracted to really outgoing types. Virtuous church women reaching for the James Dean bad boy and so on (the attraction made stronger by the forbidden nature of it, and the idea you can change or domesticate him -- only thing is if this were actually successful the woman loses interest because this bad boy personifies the parts of herself she feels she cannot express outwardly and may even have repressed to the point to say 'i'm not like that.') I think this is largely one of the reasons why you see so many introverts with extraverts when looking at long term relationships. 

Also anima/animus can be macro as well. Marilyn Monroe and many celebrities, strippers, porn stars, etc, play the social anima figure so to speak. Collective ideals of the youthful coquettish woman. Many authority figures like presidents and preachers often fit in the animus role (especially fatherly men like the pope or presidents). So these things have many layers.


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## zallla (Oct 11, 2011)

Oh, thanks for both of you, that was very informative and interesting!

The anima/animus seems like very powerful to me, it seems to have a potentially huge effect - I never realized that before. It's awesome to start to see how the mysteries of the greatest opposites forming couples are revealed now. My INTP dad, for example, wanted to switch my mum (who is also introverted and not Fe-user, could be INFP but I don't really know) to another woman who I see as ESFJ (it just couldn't be more obvious she's Fe-user). My dad is one of the _most_ introverted persons I've ever met (could be tritype 952), and she is her opposite, I'm pretty sure she keeps talking even when no-one is around  She's really great and has the best social skills I've never seen in anyone. And they seem like a _great_ match when you get to observe them, they get along really really well and I can see how she makes my dad open up and more in touch with his feelings and expressions of those. It looks like she's all he ever wanted and I'm really happy for him.

When I was younger, I wouldn't have admitted to myself or anyone that a girl like that appealed to me - I guess I used to mainly scorn at the thought of me or someone else being very feminine, pay much attention to clothes, seem flirty and seductive etc. But nowadays I really wish I could dress well and look attractive and that it would be natural for me to be so sensual, dance and move my body like the girl in that video does, just have that kind of attractive aura and flirt without feeling unsure at all etc. I can easily see how that could be my idealized self. And even what I called the opposing personality complex could be just my animus, it was just something I projected onto the opposite sex. 

Those obviously seem somewhat similar to me, attraction/anima and lust/opposing complex, and I cannot differentiate those in my mind. How to differentiate those really? For example, @_LiquidLight_, I could have thought some of your examples of anima/animus fit for opposing complex better because of the bad or forbidden kind of nature..?


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

Well I answer sort of more directly from Jung since there's not really much literature or info on Opposing Personality. That's a complex Beebe made up. Not that it may not exist just that its his idea not Jung's (or anyone else's) so its hard to quantify what is and isn't. I think @Eric B has done probably one of the most exhaustive jobs of it, but where the other complexes are found in Jungian literature like the witch/senex or puer, Opposing Personality is all Beebe.

There's a lot in the thread I made a year ago called http://personalitycafe.com/cognitiv...k-guide-understanding-jungian-psychology.html on the anima/animus complex especially in the first article by Daryl Sharp that should help people understand it all better. I think its a fascinating subject, and I think Jung thought that too, to the point where he even goes as far as to say basic moods might be the influence of the complex (like a whiny, snarky, negative, man like say Simon Cowell may very well be under the spell of a negative anima complex for example. If he was a woman he might be referred to even with the feminine derogatory term bitch.)


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## WickerDeer (Aug 1, 2012)

I tried to find a video of a gorilla to show what my animus is like--but all the videos had such stupid humans in them that I couldn't find one that spotlighted the gorilla. Eugh--makes me angry--makes me SMASH things!!! (man, it is horrible what people do to animals)

Ok.

My animus is a lot of things. It's like a large dog who does what I say, but who I'm still afraid of. It's like a monkey that tries to keep me from where I'm going. It's like a warrior vet who lost his ability to move by trying to protect me (and the world). It sometimes can act without speaking--unlike I, who speaks more than acts. It is a great animus, really. I wonderful one. I don't know where all our problems come from.


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

hmm your conception of the opposite gender is represented by an animal? Interesting...


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## Naama (Dec 5, 2010)

Anima does not equal inferior function, but anima comes through inferior as they are both in archaic state and undifferentiated. But it comes trough tert aswell if its not differentiated, even trough aux to some degree


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

Yea, the anima isn't your inferior, I heavily doubt that. Frankly, it's just where strong emotions cluster, which just happens to happen around your less differentiated functions.


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

I can imagine inferior Se might be pretty...irrational, perhaps.


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## DomNapoleon (Jan 21, 2012)

*How I consider my animus (Se):
*-Wants to live life in place of analyzing it; 
-Wants to experiment adventures, acting on impulse, in place of thinking about it; 
-Craves for animalistic impulses, craves for drugs and alcohol;
-Isn't anxious of exploring unknown places;
-Wants to be where the fun/excitement/stimulation is, rather than try to build its ideas in a quite place; 
-It's sociable, impulsive, gut-oriented, and consequently less cerebral and intellectual;
-Lives for the now rather than building an idealized future. 

*How I consider my opposing personality complex (Ne): 
*-It will claim that there are infinite possibilities about a certain scenario, while my Ni will claim 'there is only one universal solution the environment points to';
-It will challenge my word;
-It will try to show me different ways of watching things and wants to argue;
-Craves for stimulation/excitement and enjoys debating; 
-It's rude, bitchy, wants discord and challenges others in order to innovate and get solutions outside the box.


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## Donovan (Nov 3, 2009)

JungyesMBTIno said:


> I can imagine inferior Se might be pretty...irrational, perhaps.


if it's not too personal, in what way might it be "irrational"? (feel free to make it general)


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## Entropic (Jun 15, 2012)

Well, I know my animus is a very emotionally sensitive man exactly because I figured many years ago this is something I reject from my psyche. I possess emotional sensitivity but I refuse to acknowledge that I am vulnerable this way. Thus I find myself indeed projecting and being drawn to a man who represents these traits. I have more specifically narrowed down said man to most likely be an sp 4w5 enneagram type because I notice a tendency that I often feel attracted to men who seem to exhibit motivations/traits of sp 4w5.


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

celticstained said:


> if it's not too personal, in what way might it be "irrational"? (feel free to make it general)


It's not too personal. Might involve the person judging a book by it's cover or something that's not generally condoned like that, lol (like, if the person has fallen too far into the unconscious through the function and just feels like being wild with reality testing - not under ordinary circumstances for the most part).


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## surgery (Apr 16, 2010)

zallla said:


> *Perhaps because of their rather fascinating aspects, I'd be curious to know how do you see your anima ie inferior function and your opposing personality complex (Xy-->Xz). Anima is projected onto those we fall in love with, the opposing complex is the bad boy or whore we lust after in the opposing sex (no wonder this is so intriguing). So, are you aware of how those could affect your life and preferences?*


Honestly, I don't think the anima has so much to do with the inferior function as it does with basic biology. Men who look aggressive tend to seem more virile, therefore more sexually attractive, especially towards women who suppress that side of themselves. Women who seem fertile, very feminine, or openly "in heat" probably look more attractive, especially towards men who suppress that side of themselves. I doubt it has to do with psychological opposites in type though.


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## surgery (Apr 16, 2010)

For example, not all Te-dom women (or, less than one might imagine) who, in day to day life, might be more aggressive (than what's socially "expected") are going to be attracted to sensitive, easy-going men INFP men because he represents her animus + inferior function. Is that what OP asking?


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## bobdaduck (Apr 24, 2010)

Assuming anima is talking about my inferior function and 5th function (Se and Ne)

Se is the reason I'm a dancer, and I often get really spontaneous and physical (as in, randomly tackle my friends physical). 

Ne I don't see in my life, and I don't often notice it in others. I relate to what (I think it was Eric B) posted, about the opposing personality being something that's just kind of tolerated and stuff. I don't tend to find Ne particularly sexy though. Spontaneous Se-women do tend to catch my eye, though not generally for long-term attraction.


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