Stage Three: Psychosis - Entering the Land of the Unconscious: The Anima/Animus
Like Tyler (Shadow), Marla (Anima) seems to refer to an interior figure and not a "real" person. Jack first encounters her at the support group for men with testicular cancer. Like Jack, Marla is making the rounds of support groups. Initially, he despises her and can easily find fault in her for his own actions. He comments: Marla, that faker! If I really did have a tumor, I'd name it Marla!
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At this point the similarity between Jung's visions and schizophrenia starts to waver for two reasons. The first one I have already mentioned. It concerns the fact that Jung's subsequent productions of the unconscious are in the form of dreams and fantasies, and have none of the terrifying, involuntary quality of psychosis so common in schizophrenia. Secondly, according to Couteau, the schizophrenic confrontation with the unconscious lacks the mediation of the anima
I began to comprehend in a new way the notion of severe illness as a magnifying glass of the soul, from which sometimes the only benefit seems to be insights gained about psyche by the analyst observing "from the outside," for many of my patients, estranged from the mediating function of the anima, were instead confronted directly with the chaotic abyss of the collective unconscious. Yet even for these patients, the presence of a therapist, especially one who could serve as a surrogate anima—a therapist routed in soul-making—provided a vital link to their souls (Couteau 198).
Source: Schizophrenia & Self Disintegration
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Water represents the unconscious but it also refers to the feminine and emotions. In a guided visualization Jack takes part in at one of the support group meetings he attends, he finds himself in a cave made of ice, suggesting that his own emotions are frozen. A penguin appears and tells him to slide. When the visualization is repeated, Marla appears in the penguin's place and repeats the word: Slide.
Marla is Jack's
anima. It's fitting that Jack would not meet her until after he had met Bob and found the opportunity to reconnect to his emotions and feelings...
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Seeking guidance, Jack stumbles into a group for men with testicular cancer. He finds that a weekly catharsis between Bob's breasts rids him of his insomnia by allowing him to feel. But this apparent solution produces a new dilemma for Jack - crying men.BOB: We're still men.
JACK: Yes. We're men. Men is what we are.
JACK (V.O.): Bob cried. Six months ago, his testicles were removed. Then hormone therapy. He developed ***** tits because his testosterone was too high and his body upped the estrogen. That was where my head fit -- into his sweating tits that hang enormous, the way we think of God's as big.
Source: Fight Club: A Jungian Interpretation
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In its highest form, the anima/animus serves as a guide to the unconscious but Jack so despises Marla he makes an arrangement with her to split up the support group meetings so they need never see each other. This seems to serve as a reinforcement to the split that has taken place between Jack and his anima. However, Tyler does enter into a relationship with Marla. This is a very dark relationship, not all that healthy and largely sexually based (union) but even this suggests the beginning of establishing communication lines.
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Every man has a feminine component in his psyche; every woman has a masculine component in hers. Unfortunately, for centuries, and particularly in the western world, it has been considered a virtue - 'the done thing' - for men to suppress their femininity; and until very recently women have been socially conditioned to think it unbecoming to show their masculinity. One result of this has been man's bad treatment of women. Man's fear and neglect of his own femininity have had dire consequences. Not only has he repressed the femininity in himself; but also, being frightened of women - who are 'the feminine' par excellence - he has suppressed them, kept them subordinate and powerless.
The further consequence of this suppression of femininity in a world dominated by men is war. Wars are the result of the lopsided development of men whose aggressiveness has not been balanced by love and patience and a feeling for harmony: that is, whose anima has been kept under lock and key. The macho male is violent and destructive.
Source: Anima & Animus
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Through Tyler, Jack's masculine side begins to come into relationship with his feminine side although this is a convoluted process. It's not until near the end of the movie that Jack consents to speak directly with Marla once more. She is standing at the sink of the dilapidated house and a shaft of sunlight pierces the window to light up her character. Like Jack and Tyler, Marla is also in a state of metamorphosis, transforming herself from the
negative anima to the
positive anima.
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Your soul-image (anima/animus) will lead your conscious ego safely into the unconscious and safely out again. When Theseus neded to penetrate the labyrinth in Crete in order to slay the monstrous Minotaur, the fair Ariadne, with her thread, enabled him to go in and find his way out again. If we follow Jung and translate this story into psychological terms, the labyrinth is a symbol of the unconscious, the monster is the frightening and threatening aspect of whatever in our unconscious has been neglected and has therefore 'gone wild'; the slaying of the monster means 'taming' that wild, unruly force and bringing it under conscious control. The 'slaying' can be accomplished, however, only by love (Ariadne - the feminine) - only by accepting the neglected thing, honouring it and welcoming it into our unconscious.
Source: The Individuation Process: Anima/Animus
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It's only through developing his relationship with his
Anima that Jack develops the strength and courage to overcome his S
hadow. In order for this to happen, Bob's character intervenes once more -- by dying. It's not until Bob's death that Jack is able to see just how destructive his
Shadow can be...
.