Article: “The Double: An Archetypal Configuration” (1976) -Mitchell Walker

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung theorized that the soul of a man was feminine and he called it “Anima”; while he described the soul of a woman as masculine and called it “Animus”. The image of these souls he called Soul Figures, which he theorized are projected onto the beloved and constitute what we refer to as “romantic love”.

Obviously, the above description is for heterosexually-oriented individuals and does not fit at all for gay men or lesbians. Gay men are not going to project a female figure onto the hot guy that turns them on! Similarly, lesbians are not going to project a male figure onto the woman of their dreams!

It was not until psychologist Mitchell Walker published his article on “The Double” in 1976 that we finally had a homosexual answer to Jung’s contrasexual Soul Figure! As you can read below, the Double is a same-sex figure in the psyche that is not shadow and when charged with homosexual Eros becomes the Soul Figure for gay men and lesbians.

Here is the link to Mitchell Walker’s article, “The Double: An Archetypal Configuration” (1976):

https://treeroots.org/articles/The%20Double.pdf