The Great Mother

Great Round of female archetypes

As a brief introduction to a fraction of the book's narrative and analysis, presented here is an abbreviated abstract of a diagram Neumann identifies as "Schema III". Around a circle, or Great Round, various mother and related entities drawn from the history of religions were placed. From these were selected the following six representatives:

Mary Isis Sophia Lilith Kali the witches

Neumann, employing the values of traditional cultures, describes the different positions as: Kali, the terrible Mother (sickness, dismemberment, death, extinction); the witches; Lilith, the negative Anima (ecstasy, madness, impotence, stupor); Isis, the good Mother (fruit, birth, rebirth, immortality); Mary (spiritual transformation); and, Sophia, the positive Anima (wisdom, vision, inspiration, ecstasy). They are grouped in three polar opposites: the Mother axis; the Anima axis; and the vertical transformation axis.

Archetypal articulation and consciousness

Following the theme of his The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949; 1954), Neumann first tracks the evolution of feminine archetypes from the original uroboros (primordial unconsciousness). These archetypes become articulated from the "Great Round". "The psychological development [of humankind]... begins with the 'matriarchal' stage in which the archetype of the Great Mother dominates and the unconscious directs the psychic process of the individual and the group." Eventually, from the symbolic Great Round, new psychic constellations are articulated, e.g., the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Increasingly, opportunities may open for various forms of spiritual transformation. In this process, the ancient cultures involved provide avenues for the gradual liberation of the individual ego consciousness, and his or her awareness of self. The "rise to consciousness" through a semi-unconscious social process affecting the group becomes institutionalized as ritual. Later more individual paths may evolve to augment the process of spiritual transformation.

Psychology of gender dichotomy

The Great Mother archetype, as discussed in Nuemann's prior work The Origins and History of Consciousness, is eventually transcended by the mythic Hero. His victory personifies the emergence of a well-established ego consciousness from the prior sway of unconscious or semi-conscious forces. The gender dichotomy, however, necessarily favors a focus on the liberation of male consciousness.

In his subsequent The Great Mother Neumann directs most of his attention instead to the feminine archetype, its further description and analysis. Yet it's seldom-stated back story remains by default the emergence of the ego consciousness of the male hero. "Neumann was well aware that The Great Mother told only one side of the story, and had plans to complement the study with a volume on the female psychology of the Great Mother." His early death foreclosed work on this companion volume. Neumann did publish an article, followed by an amplification of it, which outlined his multilateral understanding of the rise of female ego consciousness and the corresponding relationship to the Great Mother archetype.

Archetype compared to archaeology

In an unpublished manuscript of the late 1930s, Neumann praised J. J. Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht (1861) [Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World]. Yet Neumann viewed him not as a cultural historian but as a "modern researcher of the soul". In fact, Bachofen's theory of "female dominated epochs" did not survive scrutiny, but had been "criticised and rejected by most contemporary historians". Although Marija Gimbutas's 1989 book advanced a position that inclined to the contrary, "most archaeological scholars today agree that there is no evidence for ancient worship of the Great Mother goddess... ." Yet Bachofen's views remained influential.

While conceding the negative conclusions of cultural history and archaeology, there was an effort "to rescue Bachofen's concept of an age of gynaecocracy through a psychological revision." Starting from an article by Jung on the mother archetype, Neumann expanded its range and depth. Utilizing many Eranos illustrations to supplement his text, he eventually produced his book, The Great Mother. It presents "a detailed examination of the different archetypal appearances of the Great Mother in mythology and religion." Liebscher cautions that it is "important today to read Neumann's study not as a contribution to a failed ancient cult of the Goddess but as an exemplary study of archetypal psychology."

Scholarly reception

Psychologist James Hillman writes that Neumann interprets every kind of female figure and image as symbols of the Great Mother. Hillman believes that, "If one's research shows results of this kind, i.e., where all data indicate one dominant hypothesis, then it is time to ask a psychological question about the hypothesis."

Jungian analyst Robert H. Hopcke, who calls The Great Mother "monumental in its breadth", considers it "Neumann's most enduring contribution to Jungian thought" alongside The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949).

Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas called Neumann's book "much appreciated". His "psychological approach has opened new avenues in the interpretation... of the prehistoric Goddess." Yet Prof. Gimbutas felt that "the term mother devalues her importance and does not allow appreciation of her total character. Further, much of Neumann's archetype is based on post-Indo-European religious ideology, after the image of the Goddess had suffered a profound and largely debased transformation." Accordingly, for the prehistoric period, Gimbutas preferred "the term Great Goddess as best describing her absolute rule, her creative, destructive, and regenerative powers."

Siegmund Hurwitz, among other references to Neumann, quotes approvingly from The Great Mother for Neumann's description and characterization of the "anima figure" as being a distinct female archetype, to be distinguished from the originally more powerful mother phenomena itself.

Scholar Camille Paglia identifies The Great Mother as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990). She has called it "a visual feast" and his "most renowned" work.

Scholar Martin Liebscher writes, "Neumann's The Great Mother provided a watershed moment in the way archetypal studies would be conducted." Previous monographs, each focused on a particular archetype, were plentiful but they could not compete "with the minute detail and careful structuring of Neumann's examination of the Great Mother archetype."