The Unconscious Duality of the Anima

Wild Strawberries (1957) | 8½ (1963)

Swiss Psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed that the psyche is a self-regulating system that is constantly striving for growth through a process called individuation or “the quest of the individual to reach their fullest potential”—the ideal (The Jungian Model of the Psyche | Journal Psyche). “According to Jung, the anima and animus are the contra-sexual archetypes of the psyche, with the anima being in a man and animus in a woman” (The Jungian Model of the Psyche | Journal Psyche). In both Ingmar Bergman’s Smultronstället (1957) or “Wild Strawberries” and Federico Fellini’s Otto e mezzo (1963) or “8½” the main characters navigate their unconscious duality as they are confronted by their contra-sexual archetypes in their quests for the ideal.

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Fellini establishes the harried director’s displaced anima—laying the foundation for Guido Anselmi’s (Marcello Mastroianni) pursuit for external affirmation—by opening the film up with a dream sequence wherein Guido escapes his stalled car and flies into the sky, only to be yanked back down—falling into the sea below. While stalled, numerous bystanders stare as Guido’s car fills with smoke to which the director must summon the strength to escape.

Perhaps Fellini is suggesting the illogical conclusion to his feat was the moment Guido lost his sense of identity as the director is released from his suffocating scenario without so much as a hint from those watching as to what they thought of his act (8½ 1:17-3:29).

Subsequently, Guido is confronted by numerous film industry professionals who all want to know what the director is cooking up next to which he deflects, not knowing what he will create. Not in a dream, these suffocating interactions demonstrate a symptomatic lack of creativity derivative of Guido’s displaced anima while integrating his conscious with the unconscious.

Further, reality illustrates that Guido suffers poor relatedness when interacting with members of the opposite sex, thus isolating himself from any real, healthy relationships, even seeing women as capricious apparitions (8½ 8:29-13:20).

Later, Guido attends an evening entertainment revue where a pair of magicians read his mind—producing the words “asa nisi masa.” The words cause Guido to retreat into the recesses of his mind remembering a night at his grandmother’s farmhouse where he is pampered by his doting aunts.

When all the children are supposed to be asleep, Guido’s cousin begins chanting the mysterious phrase, “asa nisi masa,” claiming the eyes of the painting will move when recited. The nonsensical phrase, likely a Pig Latin obfuscation of Jung’s contra-sexual archetype, anima, serves to illustrate that one’s adult motivations do not transcend one’s childhood desires—soothing, nurturing, and loving.

As children, humans rely on the external validation of others to learn appropriate behavior, but Guido’s memory suggests that his childhood desires when given in excess are damaging to your adult motivations (8½ 39:16-43:58) (Saline).

Guido returns to the hotel lobby where he finds out his wife, Luisa (Anouk Aimée), called, and while waiting for the concierge to get his wife on the phone, Guido speaks with French actress Madeleine (Madeleine Lebeau) who becomes disappointed in the director for not giving her more information on her (unknowingly unfinished) part (8½ 46:29-49:16).

Again, Guido’s conscious and unconscious self collide; in his hotel room, a symbol of purity causes Guido to monologue, saying,

“‘It’s time to set all the symbols aside—the lure of purity, innocence, escape.’”

(8½ 53:55-54:35)

Suddenly, Guido experiences a crisis of inspiration where he becomes one with his femininity envisioning Claudia in his newly developed role, suggesting Guido’s anima is stabilizing by setting his need for validation aside.

In a discussion with a Catholic cardinal, the cardinal informs Guido of a legend involving the Diomedeo, stating,

“when Diomedes died, all these little birds gathered and sang a funeral chorus as they accompanied him to his grave.”

(8½ 1:01:05-1:01:27)

Distracted by a woman, Guido, again, retreats into his fantasies where he recalls a time when he and other boys visited Saraghina (Eddra Gale), watching her dance—suggestively—while the boys (reminiscent of Diomedes) chant fervently (8½ 1:02:22-1:05:10).

The gypsy woman Saraghina acts as the catalyst by which Guido is introduced to his displaced anima as his mother is ashamed of his sinful behavior…

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Like Fellini, Ingmar Bergman employs dream sequences to reveal the main character’s motivations. However, opposite to Fellini, Bergman establishes the aging professor’s displaced anima—laying the foundation for Dr. Eberhard Isak Borg’s (Victor Sjöström) pursuit for external affirmation—by opening the film up with a sequence wherein Isak states,

“In our relations with other people, we mainly discuss and evaluate their character and behavior. That is why I have withdrawn from nearly all so-called relations.”

(Wild Strawberries 0:45-1:13)

Isak is on the other end of the spectrum: his adult motivations eschew all feedback out of reproach to his childhood desires.

In the first dream sequence, a clock hanging above the street is missing its hands, Isak checks his pocket watch, and it too, is missing its hands. Subsequently, a coach-less hearse turns the corner. After getting stuck on a lamp post, the coffin is loosed—dropping onto the ground before Isak. Curious, he checks the coffin; inside is another Isak (Wild Strawberries 4:54-8:30). Confronted by his own mortality, Isak begins to realize that a life marked by coldness has left him empty.

On their drive to the Lund Cathedral, Isak and his daughter-in-law, Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), stop by Isak’s childhood summer-home where he happens upon the place where wild strawberries grow (Wild Strawberries 19:26).

Suddenly, despite not being present for the events he describes, “the day’s clear reality dissolved into the even clearer images of memory that appeared before [Isak’s] eyes with the strength of a true stream of events” (Wild Strawberries 19:56-20:16).

Bergman introduces the audience to the impetus of Isak’s stifled psychosexual progression—Sara (Bibi Andersson)—suggesting that his long, lost love precipitates a life of loneliness. In his delusion, Isak (pathologically) contrives interactions between Sara and his brother, Sigfrid (Per Sjöstrand)—the man that forcefully and maliciously stole his love from him.

At the table, the twins disclose the dalliance between Sigfrid and Sara, to which Sara runs away embarrassed. Isak looks in on Sara being consoled by her aunt wherein Sara claims “Isak is so fine and good, so moral and sensitive” (Wild Strawberries 28:39-28:57).

Again, Isak pathologically contrives a discussion between two people where their grief (and pain) is merely a consequence of their misdeeds toward him. More, when confronted with a displeasing reality, Isak recalls a distorted measure of reality, shaping his reality to fit his own ascribed narrative.

Later, Isak “[dozes] off, but was haunted by vivid and humiliating dreams” (Wild Strawberries 53:52).

In his dream, Isak returns to the strawberry patch where Sara compels him to look into a mirror in order to inspire introspection via the Kafkaesque dream. In this moment, Sara shows Isak what he looks like, stating,

“You’re a worried old man who’s soon going to die…it hurt because you can’t bear the truth.”

(Wild Strawberries 54:22)

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The achievement of self-actualization is a process requiring the conscious and the unconscious to integrate—for Guido and Isak, this means their anima must be capable of self-soothing and -nurturing and be capable of empathy.

Fellini demonstrates the extremes of a displaced conscious and unconscious in Claudia—Guido’s feminine archetype—stating, “I see no one can tell you anything! You’re such a phony,” illustrating that Guido is incapable of integrating his conscious and unconscious as he regresses into know-it-all behavior to which he pathologically contrives his mother asking, “Where are you running off to, you naughty boy?” before succumbing to the pressure, killing his “self” in order to pursue the ideal (8½ 2:02:04-2:08:04).

Whereas Bergman demonstrates Isak’s integrated anima with a final dream of his feminine archetype—Sara—stating, “there are no wild strawberries left,” leaving Isak with his parents as a symbolic representation of the archetype’s “self” nurturing ability where Isak (finally) has a strong center (Wild Strawberries 1:29:41-1:30:46).

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References

8½. Directed by Federico Fellini, Cineriz, 1963.

The Jungian Model of the Psyche | Journal Psyche. journalpsyche.org/jungian-model-psyche. Accessed 22 Oct. 2022.

Saline, Brittney. “4 Ways to Stop Relying on External Validation.” Talkspace, 10 Dec. 2020, www.talkspace.com/blog/validation-opinions-stop-seeking.

Wild Strawberries. Directed by Ingmar Bergman, Svensk Filmindustri, 1957.