Maiden of the Mer: An Imaginal Approach to Female Voice

Abstract

This theoretical research utilizes an imaginal approach to explore the transformational experience of empowering a hitherto silenced female voice. Archetypal and symbolic images of the mermaid and her myth are engaged to make visible the intersection between conscious and unconscious dynamics of the self-silencing. This brings into view the deeply rooted psychological themes of loss and suffering associated with silencing of voice by self or other, enabling the process of transformation towards a recovery of voice. Jung’s theory of Self provides a foundation upon which to understand female voice as a comprehensive expression of one’s linguistic, intellectual, creative and assertive strengths and potentials. The study explores how the process of individuation as Jung describes it serves to lead to a full embodiment of voice and a consequent home-coming to wholeness. It investigates the self-silenced construct within cultural, societal and familial contexts and demonstrates its links to clinical symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating disorders as well as physical dis-ease. Following the mermaid as an archetypal symbol of silenced women, this hermeneutic study illuminates how the experience of loss and recovery is individual as well as collective. It brings the complex phenomenon of female voice and transformation into relationship with the depth psychological notion of Anima Mundi.