Follow your passions, we’re told. Live according to your values. That’s all great, but what if you’ve lost your way? What if life seems meaningless? Exploring this through the figure of puella according to Jungian analytical psychology, we find her as an archetypal, symbolic, and personality aspect. The puella is youthful, a charmer, appealing and seductive; she represents the energetic, the unusual, and the wisdom of the feminine in her many forms. Harkening back while looking forward, the puella figure lives out differently in each of us. She leads to creative and innovative expression, pointing to the future. When distorted and disturbed, however, she halts the development of the psyche until these issues are addressed.
There are many facets of this aspect of the personality. It entails a journey from the classical Jungian approach to the current day to reconnect parts of the self. There are many aspects puella needs to face and move beyond, especially how narrowly she has been defined. How easily the fictions and true stories could trade places, how quickly the verities of her life could confuse feelings. Yet she can evolve from this to desire, imagination, and access to the encounters forging transformation.
I am writing this from my experience as a Jungian analyst working with people who do not know how to harness the puella energy creatively or how to access the potential. The puella has often been demeaned, described as remaining too young, and unrealistic, unknown, and unconscious, or even a self-centered narcissist. In extreme cases, the puella person cannot root in life, unable to take themself or the world........