The Madwoman:
An Analysis in Judgement
Part I
Madness and
Addiction
The Madwoman is at the heart of addiction (her energy) and
the womb centre of creativity
Madness and addiction have been linked through the ages;
every addiction has in the means to lead to madness
The “addict” lives out of the craziness we fear, acting out of
bounds so we reject her/him
In turn, addicts come to reject the society that rejects
them
Unmasking the Modern Day Woman
Culture, Projection, and the
Madwoman
Cultural projections feed and breed the madwoman
Traditionally woman’s role is to be loved by a man - she is there to
serve as his pure, angelic, feminine soul image, the one who
inspires him to love beauty, and a better life
Or as the mother the woman is supposed to be the nurturer and
caretaker, but if she rejects these images
She is scorn - usual scorns, not feminine, overweight, or worse
yet if she is an alcoholic or sex addict...
She is given labels of primitive feminine darkness - whore, tramp,
bag lady, - she is truly a madwoman (something is wrong)
Madwoman At the End of The Line
Misdiagnosis / Pathology
The addict is often misunderstood as neurotic/insane, where
addiction is thought be overcome by ego strength, insight,
adaptation, moral fortitude
Giving the addict the idea that they can do it on their own
Addictive symptoms are also objectified and diagnosed into
psychiatric classifications, such as:
1. antisocial personality disorder; borderline personality disorder
2. paranoid schizophrenia
3. manic depressive disorders
The Psychology of the
Madwoman
Some madwomen turn their anger
against men, by being the co-addict
who plays the martyred wife,
devouring the partner through control,
guilt, judgements and putting the
partner down as weak willed
They can also play the wily
seductress, some madwoman reject
the other sex altogether, or the
madwoman can function inside men in
the form misogyny
Misogyny here - the male turning away
from his own anima (feminine nature)
inside
T.S. Elliot Remarks
• In that open field
• If you do not come too close, if you do not come to close,
• On a summer midnight you can hear the music
• Of the weak pipe and the little drum
• And see them dancing around the bonfire
• The association of man and woman
• In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie• A dignified and commodious sacrament.
• Two and two, necessarye conjuction
A Word about the Anima
The anima is the feminine side of a man, or more graphically,
inside every man is a woman whom he must come to terms
with.
It is one of the great works of a man’s life to try to relate to this
woman and for woman to relate to this man (animus)
Indeed, we could say that a man / woman can not have a
relationship with the another person, without this interior man /
woman becoming activated and wanting to have it say
Man and women may be at odds with his own anima women
(Dan in fatal attraction); and her own animus
Anima / Animus are Archetypes
Culturally conditioned
Both informed by individual consciousness and collective
consciousness
First imprinting comes from mother / father or caregivers
Their behavior was conditioned by stereotypes of that time
What initially attracts and repels you with respect to your
choice of lover / mate / etc.
Filmologie
• Exploring the Madwoman Archetype In Anima / Animus Light
★
★
★
We are trying to recapture experience where images confronts consciousness
constituting a direction and world (Andrew, 1993)
Unlock dynamics through narratives, images, and identification with self (Meunier,
1968)
Hermeneutics of Suspicion: listen in openness to symbol and to narrative and
thereby to allow creative events to occur "in front of" the phenomenon, and to have
their effect on us (Ricoeur, 1970)
Fatal Immersion
The Meeting
What are we Seeing?
Theory and thoughts?
Dan drawn to her open sexuality
What role has Dan’s wife taken on - what role has he placed
her in?
Family Life
Apparently Happy?
Seemingly in love with wife
Adores son
But deep within?
An anima dilemma or?
Anima Dilemma
Madonna / Whore Split
Anima dilemma - did his wife become solely the elevation of mother?
With this split man may find himself lamenting the loss of his sexual desire
and unconsciously rendering himself incapable of maintaining a satisfying
sexual relationship because to have sex with mother is a taboo
Or his need for love and connection has been super masculinized - women
have always been lust objects - his need for sensual connection is twisted
between intimacy and the sexual act and euphoria (which is fleeting)
A constant need to devour the image keeps the proper persona intact
The Seduction
Thoughts? Shall We be the
Judge?
Are we going to judge?
Leonard speaking about the judge says “it is the self-righteous
figure who seeks perfection and dominance”. The Judge has an
answer to everything; self-justification is his/her ploy control and
power are the goal.
The judge inside us will refuse to let us face our own humanity
We will see if Dan get here or not?
Cover Up Call
The Inner Judge
Will Dan do as the Lawyer Clamence did?
“Elude judgement by forgetting” (p. 147)
Needs to maintain proper Persona, needs
to remain innocent for the sake of being
immune to judgement (I can continue to
control others)
Inviting Madness: The Cutting
Thoughts and reactions?
What was going on for Alex?
One could say her animus is activated (strongly)
Obviously hurt
Judging him - but lost herself in the chaos; thus
forget to judge herself
Avoidance of deeper feelings - triggers past wound -
Anima Misunderstandings
The failure of men to relate to the anima brings in its wake all sorts
of mischief.
Men who become entangled with the madwoman are first entranced, delusionally
in love and then sometimes sickened by her behavior and demeanour.
Men imagine, for example, that the woman they fall in love with is actually the way
they imagine her to be failing to realize that the woman within is constantly
projecting herself outside and mingling with the woman without in such a pervasive
and subtle way that it is difficult to separate the two.
In more extreme cases men who cannot make contact with their own deep inner
feelings, with their own anima, run the risk of hurting themselves and others.