The positive mother complex

I'm posting a quote because I wasn't able to finish today's post. Actually, posts - I have three different things I'm working on, and, because each is pulling at me, I'm running from one to the next like a hamster in a wheel. Especially after the last few weeks (and months) of very intense work on the MBTI and house symbolism posts. So here's a quote from one of my favorite writers, Marie Louise von Franz. The topic is actually related to some issues I've been wrestling with; namely, the inferior function and the animus/anima.

Enjoy!

Augustine’s new feeling attitude toward the Christian church stands opposed to the fact that he was first a fanatic opponent of the church. For an intellectual introvert, as he was, it meant a complete about-face. This is his imitatio Christi. After Ambrose’s allegoric instruction the restless pace began, until the inferior function broke through with great emotion; feeling overwhelmed him through its newness. Until then, as we have seen, his feeling had been hidden in the mother; this is typical for a mother’s son, and when feeling is in the keeping of the mother then all other women are present only for a vulgar biological affair. His intellect runs around alone. It is interesting that Augustine’s mother died so quickly after his conversion; had she become superfluous now that his feeling had found a higher mother image – the Ecclesia?

The mother-complex thread runs through the lives of many important men, giving them an inner feminine attitude which leaves them open to the contents of the unconscious. Such a man is a vessel for new ideas; he can follow a spiritual movement. We see from this that the mother complex in itself is nothing abnormal – Dante was guided to Paradise by Beatrice as a mother figure! It means rather an inner structure which can be lived in either a positive or a negative way.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 9