Here the psychology of the patriarchate ends,
Here the psychology of the patriarchate ends, e the psychology of the patriarchate ends, and the psychology of encounter, of surrender and devotion to the Self, of individuation, and of the discovery of the feminine Self begins.
These are the two last and highest phases of the psychological development of the Feminine.
To describe them exceeds the limits of our sketch, for the problems of this phase embrace nearly all the problems of the modern woman insofar as she is really “modern,” i.e., not just living in our times by accident.
Both phases presuppose an inner victory over the symbiosis of the patriarchate.
It is equally possible, in the process, for woman’s development to be played out within a marriage that began patriarchally and symbiotically, or for the process to lead to the break up of marriage and into a new relationship.
But every transition from one phase to the next can come to pass only through psychic conflict, and the entire personality must be engaged.
A crisis of this sort, even if it is to take place within a marriage, must involve both partners because, for a woman, a change in the relationship between man and woman also always presupposes a corresponding transformation of her male partner.
An extremely common cause of marital conflicts and divorces lies in the fact that the development toward a new phase of relationship, vitally necessary for one partner, is tragically doomed to failure owing to the other partner’s lack of understanding or inability to participate in the development. ― Erich Neumann, The Fear of the Feminine, Page 50-51
