The Father Archetype in Feminine Psychology

It is common knowledge that the bond between mother and son, if intense, may decisively influence the son's psychological development. A less-discussed topic, and far less extensively studied, is the attachment between father and daughter. The mother is for the son a symbol of containment (cf. Jung, 1951, pp. 27 ff.; 1952, p. 516; etc.). Therefore her influence may either interfere with his masculine role, or may promote it by making him receptive to the irrational, which adds to his masculine nature richness and scope. For the mother also personifies for him the unconscious which holds both, the passivity of inertia and the spring of creative life. In many a great personality a deep personal attachment to the mother is the basis of outstanding artistic or other creative achievements.

But what effect has a strong tie to the father on the development of the daughter?

An answer to this question can only be attempted as part of a study of woman's psychology in general. It is a comparatively recent development of analytical psychology to study the feminine psyche as such rather than treat it as a variation of the human average which is typical of both sexes. A pioneer work in this field is Esther Harding's The Way of All Women, in which the author investigates what woman is like apart from her relation to man, and apart from the role she plays in man's psychology. In her second book, Woman's Mysteries, Esther Harding has drawn attention to the typical problem of modern woman, who, owing to the increasing development of her masculine side, is in danger of losing touch with the instinctive roots of her being (cf. esp. Harding, 1935, pp. 12 ff.). Esther Harding has recorded a very important observation. The inevitable conflict, she says, which characterizes the situation of woman in the modern Western world, and of the professional woman in particular, is rarely if ever experienced by her or even admitted into her consciousness. By nature and inclination woman tends to avoid