The Beloved Other: Considering the Syzygy

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Presented by Joanna de Waal

Jung’s model of contra-sexual archetypes, anima and animus, has necessarily been subject to much retheorising in the light of contemporary experience, (the problematic androcentric and heteronormative associations to male/female opposites and couplings), yet the Syzygy, that divine pairing has received less attention despite Jung’s insistence that not much can be said of either anima or animus without reference to it.

This paper proposes the ungendered term Beloved Other that finds its place and couple in the Syzygy, described by Shwartz-Salant as ‘relations per se’; the field of human eros - interest, curiosity, desire, impelled by the ever-present human imperative to relate, that sine qua non of human life. Here, the analyst is called on to participate whole heartedly as one part of an existent ever-shifting couple, where transference and projection lose meaning. That place of us.

About the speaker

Joanna de Waal is a member of the BJAA, UK. She teaches on UK Jungian analytic trainings and is currently the chair of training for the BJAA. Joanna has given papers at a number of international conferences including the XXI and XXIII International IAAP Conferences 2019 and 2025. A trained teacher and singer, Joanna has worked as a music practitioner in prisons and community programmes, as well as performing with various music ensembles. She currently lives and works in private practice in Oxford, UK.

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