The medial woman, who was named by Toni Wolff in 1934 and who embodies the mediumistic feminine archetype, has largely been ignored in contemporary culture and scholarship. A medial woman is one who is "in between, neither one thing nor the other, universal, neutral, a mediator ... immersed in the psychic atmosphere of her enviornment and the spirit of her times, but above all, in the collective ... unconscious" (Wolff, 1951/1995, p. 86). This work has refined Wolff's definition to correspond to the nature of the medial woman of the late 20th century.

This study utilized heuristic methodology to explore the wounds of the medial woman in contemporary Western culture. Data were gathered through 5 hours of interviews with each of four medial women over the age of 35. Each woman was identified as medial by a knowledgeable third party, by the Sherlock FQ Sort, and by herself upon reading Wolff's definition. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and then crafted into portraits of each. The author also included her own portrait as a medial woman, drawn from personal material. Every woman reviewed, corrected, and approved the final portrait.

The women involved in the study all expressed relief in knowing that there are others like themselves and that there are archetypal reasons for their sense of being different, feared, forgotten, and wounded in this culture. Many wounds and experiences are held in common, including being successful but used up in institutions; being overwhelmed in groups; having no psychic tolerance for noise or violence; having deep empathy and porosity of being which leads to difficulty with boundaries; experiencing deep loneliness and an extreme need for solitude; having difficulty re-entering the ordinary world following experiences with collective unconscious; being open to dark forces; and fearing madness and loss of medial qualities.

The common response was to go undercover with her medial qualities. Not only is this a loss to the woman but also to the culture. This study attempted to call modern medial women by name and to help them begin to understand themselves more fully and to claim this archetypal identification more boldly. The strength they have built up and sustained through the wounding of this historical time can be converted to power, authority, and gift, as medial women become leaders in a new era that will honor a broader range of archetypal expressions.