But are men advantaged over women in engaging the "shadow" forms of the masculine archetypes of maturity in the human psyche? No.
When it comes to drawing on the "shadow" forms of the masculine archetypes of maturity and on the "shadow" forms of the feminine archetypes of maturity, American men and American women are about equal.
However, there is a catch when we turn our attention to the optimal forms of the archetypes of maturity. Let me explain.
For example, it may be possible for a man to learn how to draw on the energies of one of the optimal forms of the masculine archetypes of maturity (e.g., the Wise Old Man archetype) without drawing being able to draw on the seven other optimal forms of the archetypes of maturity. However, before he will be able to draw on the energies of the optimal forms of the three other masculine archetypes of maturity, he will have to be able to draw on the optimal form of one of the feminine archetypes of maturity (e.g., the anima archetype, which is the feminine Lover archetype). Of course this is easier said than done.
Vice versa may be true for women.
Now, men and women in religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church usually take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
But of course most American men and American women do not take vows of chastity. So we should discuss romantic love and the archetypes involved in it. Briefly, in romantic love, each person projects the feminine Lover archetype or the masculine Lover archetype on to the other person.
But romantic love can get tricky, because of the "shadow" of the masculine and the feminine Lover archetypes.
For romantic love to work out optimally, each person must eventually learn to love the other person as a human person -- instead of being in love with an archetypal projection. This is easier said than done. However, when two persons manage to learn how to love one another as individual persons, they may thereby learn how to draw on the optimal form of the respective Lover archetype in their psyches.
For the sake of discussion, let's say this does happen to two persons.
One down, one to go for each person involved. But the one to go must be the right one -- the one that can effectuate the conjunction of opposites that Dr. Jung explores in hif last big book, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, translated by R. F. C. Hull (2nd ed., 1970; German original ed. in two parts, 1955 and 1956). In other words, each person involved in the romantic love then faces the challenge to learn how to draw on the energies of a second optimal form of an archetype of maturity, but it must be the right one to effectuate the conjunction of opposites and bring about personal transformation.
Let's review. I've been discussing Dr. Harding's book Woman's Mysteries. I just mentioned Dr. Jung's book Mysterium Coniunctionis. Please note that these two titles have one word in common.
To learn how to draw on the energies of all eight optimal forms of the archetypes of maturity can take years. It's tricky to learn each of the eight optimal forms.
When it comes to the fully functioning human person who is able to draw on the energies of the optimal forms of all eight archetypes of maturity, are American women and American men just as likely to emerge as fully functioning persons?
Or are American women more likely than American men to emerge as fully functioning persons?
Or are American men more likely than American women to emerge as fully functioning persons?
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