Jungian Therapy, Jungian Analysis, New York

Homosexuality

from Jung Lexicon by Daryl Sharp

Homosexuality. Usually characterized psychologically by identification with the anima. (See also mother complex.) Jung acknowledged the potential neurotic effects of homosexuality, but he did not see it as an illness in itself.

In view of the recognized frequency of this phenomenon, its interpretation as a pathological perversion is very dubious. The psychological findings show that it is rather a matter of incomplete detachment from the hermaphroditic archetype, coupled with a distinct resistance to identify with the role of a one-sided sexual being. Such a disposition should not be adjudged negative in all circumstances, in so far as it preserves the archetype of the Original Man, which a one-sided sexual being has, up to a point, lost.[“Concerning the Archetypes and the Anima Concept,” CW 9i, par. 146.]