Local Calgarian Jungian analyst Peggy Voth will be speaking to us on March 25th, 2022 on the realms of the masculine and feminine functions and the intelligence that accompanies each. It promises to be an engaging and enriching event; register now! Thank you so much Peggy for your willingness to answer a few preliminary questions to prepare us for your lecture.

Q: How did you come to this topic of feminine and masculine thinking?

In the process of writing my book, I began to realize that the kind of consciousness and thinking and intelligence that I’ve been part of and surrounded by all my life isn’t all there is. It is very much oriented to the masculine intellect. My book is about the nature of Woman. While working with the material, it became clear to me that there is a feminine quality of awareness, a perceptive comprehension unique to the feminine. I began to recognize value in an instinctive way of thinking. This sparked curiosity and I wanted to understand more about the feminine sentience that lies on the perimeters of our collective viewpoint. Jung’s essay “Two Kinds of Thinking” provided a springboard for the theme of this lecture.

Q: You say that anyone can develop both kinds of thinking. How do we do that?

The first step is to know what each looks like, how each works, what each brings to the table, so to speak. Thinking is a function of intelligence. The orientation of the thinking––directed or non-directed––tells us something about the source of the intelligence. One comes from mental capacity, the other from intuitive aptitude. Knowledge is a first step. From there, curiosity, self-reflection and desire foster understanding and growth.

Q: Do we need to develop both types of intelligence? If so, why?

Jung has said that in order to come fully into who we are, we have to integrate the feminine part of ourselves. Whether man or woman, the furtherance of individuation requires that we come to know and accept the nature of the inner feminine. This is necessary because the feminine perspective has been left out of our cultural consciousness. In our society, we have many opportunities to develop the masculine way of thinking. We are schooled in it, evaluated by it, socialized into it. This is not true of feminine thinking. Wholeness requires connection to and use of both feminine and masculine principles. In this talk, I hope to expand our awareness of both kinds of intelligence so that we can recognize which is at play and which is needed in our interactions, in our choices and in our surroundings.