A Girl's Unfolding, From Imposter to Real

We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us. – Marcel Proust, Chapter IV: Seascape, with a Frieze of Girls, Vol.II: Within a Budding Grove

This post describes a concept of personality called the puella in the schema of Jungian analytical psychology. What follows is a brief overview of this part of the personality and its expression of femininity apparent to a greater or lesser extent in all people. Examining oneself means decoupling femininity from rigid psychological definitions of body and psyche.

As Swiss Jungian analyst Toni Wolff said years ago, “What is of practical importance is the awareness of the existence of the problem, and the attempt to resolve the state of inner confusion by attaining greater consciousness” (Wolff, 1956). We are led to puella with imagination and hope, enchanted and curious about her make-up within each of us. The puella character forms in the psyche in various ways. It is influenced from the prominent effect of the absent father and mother figures who are emotionally missing and do not provide sufficient connection to a child’s being. They do not encourage growth to maturity and model inadequacy in guidance and their attachment to each other or to the child and can contribute to the narcissist's adaptation to the world.

Puella is noticeable with a certain style, a freshness and interest. She can be of any age, energetic with ideas and hope. However, she can also be bogged down with a secret sorrow and numbness, and carries a dead weight about living. The zest is compromised; the strength is as well. She is smart and quick, yet the full development of her personality has not unfolded. She needs time as something has become stunted. This derives from a neglectful family system and structure and culturally limiting and scripted roles. She is withheld, living behind a wall, taken with destructive complexes and unable to access a more complete self. Psychological exploration can free her from the shackles and projections into her more natural movement and life force. She is the girl becoming and emerging from what has been into what can be.

Puella is described through the etymology of this word itself as it is aligned with the young, the maiden, adolescent, eternal child, and the virginal. Her shape is based on archetypal forms seen in fairytales, myths, and legends. These are relatively timeless, unchanging, and shaped by our history and culture. We learn about ourselves by examining their roles and enactments, unconscious assumptions, and perceptions held consciously and unconsciously. Puella stands on a historical, mythological, cultural, and personal continuum, symbolizing one form of the category called feminine.

Puella signifies the emerging feminine on the brink of becoming and at a crossroads of development. She exists between her individual nature, energy, youth, and the innovative, yet can be drawn back to traditional ways. Puella is the creative, unusual, desirous, and different. Even so and often infirm in her position, she can become waylaid. Whether we are women or men, heterosexual, lesbian, gay, or non-binary, she remains a concept and personality aspect appearing in all people to be understood and made conscious. Then her energy adds to the personality.

Puella grapples with various limitations as this aspect also represents the scared, confused, seeking to erase the internal distress and conflicts. In our dreams and life vignettes, an intriguing and poignant portrait emerges. New attitudes usher in new times, revealing the truths and struggles about what it means to be human. Puella is tender, perceptive, and intelligent yet can resist embracing the shadow with its unknown qualities and the possibility of seeing oneself in a new and expanded light.

This personality aspect works the female voice out of its conformity and repression into creative spaces with her rebellious nature. Her challenging the traditional patterns takes courage, dedication, and devotion. This emerges through what is called in Jungian analytical psychology the process of individuation. It evolves by exploring the many facets of the psyche and finding what is true to oneself.

For example, at the core of Jungian psychology is an understanding that we are a mixture of male and female, masculine and feminine. Notions of woman, man, and the feminine are altering dramatically and more change is on the horizon. The formation of differentiated relationships means separation and exclusion from what was and is part of the process of individuation.

This presents challenges, not for pathologizing but for psyche transforming. The Jungian perspective presents ways of understanding what various forms this takes in our current era. Thinking about the feminine has changed with changing cultural attitudes and awareness of the varieties of conscious and unconscious perceptions and identifications. Adulthood creates new patterns and links with it comes the ability to dissolve the maladjustments from childhood. From the problems are created new avenues more appropriate for commitment and intimacy with self and others.

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These variations enlarge our understanding while also creating misperceptions. The gender stereotypes indicate the need to rethink gender assumptions influenced by traditional hegemonic codes shaping many of the current adaptations. The fundamental tensions for navigating gender represent radical and widespread changes in the sociocultural and psychological environments. As Jung commented, “It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions that had been posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered…things which previous ages had left unfinished” (Jung, 1963).