Putting the animus into a test tube or cauldron is the beginning of the alchemical procedure; the imprisonment is for the purpose of transformation. The animus is stripped of his world, for when a thing is in a test tube …external influences are are excluded and the thing remains undisturbed inside. When the animus cannot get out into the external atmosphere, he has no object and then he has time to transform. The main point in this transformation is that one takes objects away from those animus devils. They only have objects if you allow yourself to indulge in something.

Jung