The Witch and the Clown: Two Archetypes of Human Sexuality

What makes the witch still so compelling to our imaginations? How does the clown reach through our tears to our laughter?

The witch gives us a picture of power in the feminine, of feminine intellect and spirit, primordial in its force, authoritative in its wisdom. The clown gives us a picture of the soft feeling hidden within the masculine, which men must turn to, receive, and embrace.

The Ulanovs explore these figures in a unique way-not as mere literary, anthropological, or historical themes, but in terms of what they mean to people in the actual living of their lives, in facing their problems and potentialities. Women especially need to face the witch in themselves to open to the power she embodies. Men facing the witch in themselves must deal with this fearsome power firsthand, no longer blaming women for it. Men need to face the vulnerable feelings behind the clowning masks, and open to the largeness and range of life they have hidden from in their elaborate clowning defenses. Women facing their own clowning can penetrate behind their masks to find more of their own hidden strength in feeling.

Ann Belford Ulanov is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City and on the faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology. She is professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary.

Barry Ulanov is Mcintosh Professor of English and Chairman of the Program in the Arts at Barnard College. This book represents the Ulanovs' fourth collaborative work.