| Feminine power, relegated to the shadow of the psyches of men and women, is a collective wound in Western society. Women's suffering as a result of the undervalued and denigrated status of the feminine manifests in depression, eating disorders, addictions, trauma, and codependency. A rebalanced view of power including both masculine and feminine principles is required for psychological health to occur within the individual and society. Feminine images of power are found in prepatriarchal images and myths that portray the archetypes of the Great Mother, the Wise Woman, and the Virgin. This thesis uses hermeneutic and heuristic methodology to study the status of the Feminine in Western society, and applies tenets of self psychology as well as Jungian and archetypal psychology in proposing how women can restore the feminine individually and collectively by changing their attitudes and life circumstances that support the perpetuation of patriarchy. |
