[11] Neumann in his Schema III drew upon the values of traditional cultures, with a strong caveat: the Round here is 'reductionist', a simplification for brevity and clarity; in analytically positioning these figures of the psyche, each is ambivalent.

[14] Schema III:[15] These female figures are not of precise attributes, nor rigid, fixed characteristics, but are changeable,[31] as explained both objectively by religious history,[32][33][34] and subjectively by archetypal psychology.

[38] "The psychological development [of humankind]... begins with the 'matriarchal' stage in which the archetype of the Great Mother dominates and the unconscious directs the psychic process of the individual and the group."

His victory personifies the emergence of a well-established ego consciousness from the prior sway of unconscious or semi-conscious forces (characterized by female symbolism).

Yet the book closes with a brief summary of the "primordial mysteries of the Feminine", including the Eleusinian of the mother and daughter Demeter and Persephone, and the transformative figure of wisdom, Sophia.

[47] Neumann did publish several articles, followed by an amplification of it, which outlined his multilateral understanding of the rise of a woman's ego consciousness and corresponding relationship to the Great Mother archetype.

[53][54][55] His book, highly influential in its era: Das Mutterrecht (1861) [Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World].

[59][60][61] Neumann, following the subsequent scholarship, viewed Bachofen not as a cultural historian of an ancient matriarchy, but rather as a great modern researcher of the soul.

[62][63][64] While conceding the negative conclusions of cultural history and archaeology, in the 1930s there was an effort "to rescue Bachofen's concept of an age of gynaecocracy through a psychological revision.

[78] Inclusive of new research and debate, many adherents persist in taking the view of a privileged cultural role for ancient women, and often favor a transformation in gender understanding.

[79][80][81] Psychologist James Hillman criticizes Neumann's reductionism in interpreting every kind of female figure and image as a symbol of the Great Mother.

Accordingly, for the prehistoric period, Gimbutas preferred "the term Great Goddess as best describing her absolute rule, her creative, destructive, and regenerative powers.

[87] Scholar Martin Liebscher writes, "Neumann's The Great Mother provided a watershed moment in the way archetypal studies would be conducted."