Lost Letters From the Search for the Perfect Woman: A Jungian Perspective
J. Grant Holm; Dr. Charles E. Goldsmith
Synopsis "Lost Letters From the Search for the Perfect Woman: A Jungian Perspective"
Dr. Charles Goldsmith had a long and distinguished career as a Jungian analyst who specialized in counseling the clergy as he was also an ordained minister. This book focuses on the development of the anima, in the average male subject, based upon his interpretation of Jungian psychology. Anima projection signifies a transmitting of a subjective process to an object. Looking for the "perfect woman" is a process of dissimilation, wherein the subjective content of a "perfect woman" is cast out of a man, and, in a sense, incorporated in a object, a woman, outside. Thus, in projecting onto the "perfect woman," the man detaches a content (a feeling, for instance) from himself; he then transmits it to, therewith animating, the "woman" of his desire. The book will allow the male reader to project from his inner content. It will allow the woman reader to understand the nature of the projection "put" upon her. And it will allow one to follow the strands of the projection, plat the cord of understanding, and weave a fabric of appreciation of the "perfect woman." On the one hand, rational, reasoned elements appear to play no significant role; they even seem to recede into a misty background of fantasies and images when one encounters the "perfect woman." On the other hand, there is a tug at the strings of consciousness to understand, to explain, to analyze what is happening to oneself when one meets his "perfect woman." Freud was puzzled by this riddle as he called it. "Throughout history people have knocked their heads against the riddle of the nature of femininity. . . . Nor will you have escaped worrying over this problem, those of you who are men; to those of you who are women this will not apply-you are yourselves the problem." The structure of this book will quickly reveal the dichotomy between art and science. This is not a scientific expose, but rather a "poetic" approach that diverges from traditional form and organization. The interaction of various conscious and unconscious elements in life cannot be partitioned off neatly; each experience flows into the next. The following themes flow subtly, each developing into the next. Like the analytical discussions this work evolved from, the continuity is there, even if it is apparent only in retrospect. In this book, both elements will be found. The aesthetical tendency to admire, to cherish, and even enshrine the "perfect woman" will be reviewed as something outside the province of reason. At the same time, an attempt will be made to follow the strands of the riddle, to bring into consciousness, to understand, to explain, to the degree we are able, the patterns of the unfolding of the "perfect woman."
