From the author: Some terms from the field of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology (articles were written for the Popular Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis, published in 1998 by Olympus Publishing House) Androgyne is a mythological character with male and female characteristics. In psychology, the image of the androgyne symbolizes the unity of the masculine and feminine principles, maintaining this balance with the help of consciousness. There is an ancient legend about people of the “third gender” - androgynes, about their power and the fate that befell them. It was told by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogue “The Symposium”. “Once upon a time our nature was not at all the same as it is now, but different,” says the philosopher. - Then each person had a round body, his back was no different from his chest, there were four arms, as many legs as arms, and each person had two faces on his round neck, exactly the same... Such a person either walked straight, at his full height. ..or, if he was in a hurry, he walked like a wheel, raising his legs up and rolling on eight limbs, which allowed him to quickly run forward. And there were three of these genders, and they were such because from time immemorial the male comes from the Sun, the female from the Earth, and the one who combines both of these comes from the Moon, since the Moon also combines both principles.” Androgynes possessed enormous power, they “nourished great plans and encroached even on the power of the gods.” The gods began to think: how can they appease the pride of people and reduce their power? And then Zeus found a way to put an end to this outrage: he decided to cut each of them in half so that the person would become half as weak and could now only move upright, on two legs. “And if after that they don’t calm down and start to go wild, I,” he said, “will cut them in half again, and they will jump on my one leg.” Since then, every person has been full of desire to find his other half and connect with her in order to become a whole being again. “Love is the thirst for integrity and the desire for it,” says Plato. This legend inspired many poets and writers, and the image of Androgyne became one of the symbols of original integrity, lost due to neglect of higher powers, ignorance and pride. Alchemists not only often mention this character in their treatises, but also depict him in numerous illustrations. C. G. Jung considered this image to be a symbol of the ultimate goal of the alchemical process, contrasting it with the Hermaphrodite, in which male and female qualities are dissolved in each other. If the image of the Hermaphrodite corresponds to the unconscious unity of the male and female principles in the human psyche, then the image of the Androgyne is their unification at the level of consciousness, when the originality and uniqueness of each of these principles not only does not disappear, but, on the contrary, is emphasized. Jung compared the path of individuation to the process of alchemical transformations - in both cases, in order to achieve the final goal - integrity and harmony - it is necessary to go through many steps. One of the most significant among them is meeting with the opposite principle and concluding an alliance with it. Alchemists call this event an alchemical wedding, C. G. Jung - a meeting with Anima or Animus. Not only the properties of human character, but also the opposing forces of nature, the properties of substances are traditionally associated with the original opposition of the male and female principles (see article Hermaphrodite). Therefore, it is not surprising that the image symbolizing their unity became the focus of attention of both alchemists who study the natural world and psychologists whose subject is the human soul. In analytical psychology, the image of Androgyne is used both in theoretical works and in practical work with a client. This symbol may appear in dreams, or in active imagination, when the client is working on his relationship problem with the opposite sex, or reflecting on his ideas about masculinity and femininity as such. The principle of androgyny is spoken of as a special property of a human personality that has reached a fairly high degree of its internal harmony. C. G. Jung wrote about Jesus