Self; it swings from light to dark, from inflation to depression. Only when her ego is firmly rooted in her own feminine feeling can a woman be released from her compulsive behavior." - Meaning and context.">
p. 33
“

If in later life she has mastered her hunger drive by ego control, she may assume that she can control her fate herself. But that ego may in fact be very weak, because it has been built by cutting herself off from the mainstream of life through severe dieting. It is built on negative rather than positive need. In a real life crisis, such an ego may fail to operate because she does not know consciously what her own needs are. [...] An ego which sets itself up against Fate is attempting to usurp the power of the Self; it swings from light to dark, from inflation to depression. Only when her ego is firmly rooted in her own feminine feeling can a woman be released from her compulsive behavior.

— Marion Woodman

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If in later life she has mastered her hunger drive by ego control, she may assume that she can control her fate herself. But that ego may in fact be very weak, because it has been built by cutting herself off from the mainstream of life through severe dieting. It is built on negative rather than positive need. In a real life crisis, such an ego may fail to operate because she does not know consciously what her own needs are. [...] An ego which sets itself up against Fate is attempting to usurp the power of the Self; it swings from light to dark, from inflation to depression. Only when her ego is firmly rooted in her own feminine feeling can a woman be released from her compulsive behavior." in the context of "p. 33" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Marion Woodman" (Quotes, The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter (1980): The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Repressed Feminine (Inner City Books, 1980, ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Marion Woodman

About Marion Woodman

Marion Woodman (born on the 15of Agust1928) is a mythopoetic author and women's movement figure. She is a Jungian analyst trained at the Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland.