The term androgyny, with its sex-related etymology, is based on untenable social stereotypes and for feminist critics is a dead end. The androgyny myth, like matriarchal myths and myths which deify women, should be replaced. However, a replacement would have to fill a wide niche in order to allow critics to focus from a propitious vantage point on women writers and characters. As a replacement, Carl Jung's theories about personality types may provide both an improved method of understanding the characterization of women in literature and a basis for understanding the work of women writers. Furthermore, Jung's myth of paired, opposing characteristics has a literary parellel in the poetry of William Blake and his mythological descriptions of the mind. (JM)