Jungian Psychology Archive

I’m going to share an extract from the Preface of Marion Woodman’s book, “Addiction to Perfection,”

“This book is about taking the head off an evil witch. Lady Macbeth, glued to the sticking-place of insatiable power, unable to countenance failure to the point of rejecting life, will serve as a symbol of the woman robbed of her femininity through her pursuit of masculine goals that are in themselves a parody of what masculinity really is. And though in Shakespeare’s tragedy it is Macbeth who is beheaded, the head he loses is fatally infected by the witches’ evil curse. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are metaphors of the masculine and feminine principles functioning in one person or in a culture, and the deteriorating relationship between them clearly demonstrates the dynamics of evil when the masculine principle loses its standpoint on its own reality, and the feminine principle of love succumbs to calculating, intellectualized ambition.”

Marion Woodman, “Addiction to Perfection.” P7

♥Ali