Soul-image

1. Etymology

Soul-image names the representation, in dreams or other unconscious products, of the inner personality—usually contrasexual. Related: anima / animus; soul; projection; persona; symbiosis.

2. Plain summary

Wherever an impassioned, almost magical relationship between the sexes thrives, Sharp says a projected soul-image is usually at work—and because such relationships are common, the soul is often unconscious. The image is typically projected onto a person of the opposite sex (idealist woman / “depraved” saviour-fantasy; man / prostitute as soul crying for succour).

When consciousness itself is identified with the soul, the soul-image more often becomes an aspect of the persona—projected same-sex, grounding some homosexual patterns and parent-transferenes, with defective outer adaptation and over-orientation to inner processes. Many relationships begin on projected soul-images; symbiotic, they often end badly.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common soul-image motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
contrasexual inner personality image; magical relationships as projection; saviour-fantasy / haloed prostitute; persona-as-soul-image when identified with soul; same-sex projection path; symbiotic bond; kinship with anima / animus / soul / projection.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology soul-image is the projected archetypal image of the inner (often contrasexual) personality. Lexica (Sharp dedicated head; Samuels via anima/animus / soul) supply paraphrase Do not invent loci.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Soul-image. The representation, in dreams or other products of the unconscious, of the inner personality, usually contrasexual. … Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably a question of a projected soul-image. … Many relationships begin and initially thrive on the basis of projected soul-images. Inherently symbiotic, they often end badly.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶809, ¶811.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated soul-image head; route via anima/animus / soul:

(no head)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

For a man, a woman is best fitted to be the real bearer of his soul-image, because of the feminine quality of his soul; for a woman it will be a man. Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably a question of a projected soul-image. Since these relationships are very common, the soul must be unconscious just as frequently…
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 649, ¶809) Dual anima / soul untouched.

If the soul-image is not projected, a thoroughly morbid relation to the unconscious gradually develops… For an idealistic woman, a depraved man is often the bearer of the soul-image; hence the “saviour fantasy”…
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 651, ¶811) Dual projection / persona untouched.

See also: soul; anima; animus; persona; projection; spirit; splitting.

References

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, pp. 649, 651, ¶809, ¶811). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.