Anima, Animus, Animx? Queer and Trans challenges to Analytical Psychology

African-American lesbian activist and poet, Audre Lorde, famously declared that “the master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house”. Many 21st century readers of Jung –and depth psychology in general– are faced with a difficult question: do we need to rid ourselves of this ‘tool’ in order to dismantle the structures of white supremacy, patriarchy, cis-heteronormativity, capitalism? Depth psychologists, on the other hand, are often defensive of their ‘masters’ and desperately cry out “let’s not get rid of the baby with the bathwater!” This talk will attempt to contribute to a much-needed discussion on what constitutes ‘the baby’ and what ‘the bathwater’, from a queer perspective. Focusing on gender, sexual and relationship diversity, but not shying away from how these areas of difference intersect with others, such as race and class, I look at the epistemological corollaries of recognising how slow depth psychology has been to own up to its shadow, its prejudices, its conformism and its cowardice. Why is it that assimilationist homosexuality is now quite widely accepted, whereas queerness, non-monogamy, alternative sexual practices, and above all trans subjectivity (both binary and non-binary) are causing so much anxiety in the field?