"Plato gives a fine description of the search for one's other, his anima. He describes the original human being as a round person, containing both male and female elements. This round one splits into two equal halves when it incarnates, and each half-- a complete male or female, vaguely aware that it is incomplete, lacking its original circular form-- spends it's lifetime searching for its lost other half. This search occurs obviously in its outer form as one devotes so much time and energy to looking for the perfect partner and soul mate; in its inner form, it is a much more diffuse and vague discontent and search for meaning. So much of the vitality of life is invested in these two avenues, and most of the sense of worth and meaning of life comes in this language. To be aware of this search is to be very close to the secret of life. 

Men and women have very different experiences in their search., which gives so much of the character

we ascribe to masculine and feminine. This awareness is essential in making one's way through the labyrinth of early life with its courtship and the later part of life with its search for meaning. Masculine and feminine are but two sides of the same hunger for completeness and the religious experience of ecstasy and wholeness" 

P.41, Lying with the Heavenly Woman, Robert A Johnson.