One thing is sure, a great change of our psychological attitude is imminent. That is certain. Why?
Because we need more. We need more psychology. We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself.
He is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man, far too little. His psyche should be studied, because we are the origin of all coming evil. Have you ever felt like something inside you is holding you back, sabotaging your best efforts?
What if I told you there's a hidden side of your personality, lurking in the shadows, influencing your every move through synchronicity? This hidden side is what Carl Jung calls the shadow. The shadow is a part of our unconscious mind that contains all the aspects of ourselves we reject or deny, including repressed desires, instincts, weaknesses, and parts of our personality we consider negative or undesirable.
These hidden traits influence our behavior and emotions in ways we often do not realize. To truly understand the impact of the shadow, let's delve deeper into how it forms and affects our lives. Jung tells us in his collected works, psychology and religion. Unfortunately, there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.
If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life the blacker and denser it is if an inferiority is conscious one always has a chance to correct it but if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness it never gets corrected and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness ultimately it creates an unconscious barrier undermining even our best intentions often revealed through meaningful coincidences. The shadow forms through societal norms, personal experiences, and repression.
From a young age we learn which behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are unacceptable to our family and society, pushing these traits into our unconscious mind. For example, a child told that anger is bad might repress their anger, making it part of their shadow. The shadow holds various qualities, strengths, and potentials. If left unexplored, These aspects can lead to a diminished personality, creating unconscious obstacles that hinder the development and expression of these positive traits. Understanding that everyone carries a shadow helps us recognize its profound impact on our lives.
Next, let's explore the different types of shadows, beginning with the personal shadow. In analyzing a patient, you make a typical… experiences. There is a sort of typical way in which the integration of consciousness takes place.
The average way is that through the analysis of dreams, for instance, you become acquainted with the reality of the world. with the contents of the unconscious. I always told you this, to begin with, all personal material.
Now that we've introduced the concept, let's delve deeper into the different types of shadows. Well, you see, the ego is supposed to be the representative of the real person. But as I say, for instance, in the case where B knows of A, but A doesn't know of B, in that case, case one would say the ego is more on the side of c because the ego has a more complete knowledge and a is a split of personality you see when i say self then you mustn't think of i myself because that is only your empirical self and that is covered by the term ego but when it is matter of the soul then it is matter of a personality that is more complete than the ego, because the ego only consists of what you are conscious of. The ego represents our conscious identity, while the self is a more comprehensive and complete representation of our entire personality, including both conscious and unconscious elements.
Now that was a very serious thing to me, because what else then, you see? And I hated that fellow, and that was the only man I could have killed, you know, if I had met him once at the dark corner. I would have shown them something of what I could do. Did you often have violent thoughts about people when you were young?
No, not exactly. Only when I got mad. Well, then I beat them up. And did you often get mad? Not so often, but then for good.
You were very strong and big, I imagine. Yes, I was pretty strong. And you know... Reared in the country with those peasant boys was a rough kind of life. I would have been capable of violence, I know.
I was a bit afraid of it. So I rather tried to avoid critical situations, because I didn't trust myself once I was attacked by about seven boys. And I got mad. And I took one. just swing him around with his legs, you know, and beat down four of them.
And then they were satisfied. Jung is reflecting on his own capacity for violence and aggression during his youth. He acknowledges his strong emotions and physical capabilities, but also his fear of losing control, leading him to avoid situations that could provoke violent behavior, his shadow. Now that we understand the basic concept of the shadow, let's explore Jung's model of the psyche further.
I wonder if you would mind telling us a little bit about how you construed this term, persona. Well, this is a practical concept we need in elucidating people's relation. I noticed with my patients, particularly with people that are in public life, that they have a certain way of presenting themselves.
So the persona is partially the result of the demands society has. And on the other side, it is a compromise with what one likes to be or as one likes to appear. Now, this is not the real personality, in spite of the fact that people will assure you that it is. that is all quite real and quite honest, yet it is not. Now such a performance or say, the performance of the persona is quite all right as long as you know that you are not identical with the way in which you appear. there are various personified structures that interact with one another in our inner world.
Two of these, the persona and the anima animus, are relational. The persona relates to the external world, and the anima animus to the internal world. The ego, which is primarily body-based and may be understood as the executive part of the personality, stands alongside the shadow. Together, the ego and the shadow are central to our identity. The anima is the feminine aspect present in the unconscious of men.
It represents the inner feminine side and influences men's interactions with women and their own emotional life. Its opposite, the animus, is the masculine aspect present in the unconscious of women. It represents the inner masculine side and influences women's interactions with men and their own assertiveness and reasoning. To understand how our unconscious mind shapes our reality, let's hear from Jung, on the interplay between personal and collective shadows.
The psyche has two conditions, two important conditions. One is the environmental influence, and the other is the given fact of the psyche as it is formed. The self is merely a term that designates the whole personality, because the whole personality of man is it. indescribable.
His consciousness can't be described, his unconscious cannot be described, because the unconscious, as I must repeat myself, is always unconscious. And he's really unconscious, really does not know it. And so we don't know our... our unconscious personality.
We have hints, we have certain ideas, but we don't know it really. Nobody can say where man ends. That is the beauty of it, you know.
It's very interesting. Jung is emphasizing that our unconscious personality remains largely unknown to us, despite occasional insights. He explains that the psyche is shaped by both environmental influences and inherent psychological factors present from birth. Well, chiefly, it is purely personal approach and this disregard of the historical conditions of man.
You see, we depend largely upon our history. We are shaped through education, through the influence of the parents, which are... by no means always personal.
They were prejudiced or they were influenced by historical ideas or what I call dominance. And that is a most decisive factor in psychology. We are not of today or of yesterday. We are of an immense age. Jung is discussing his disagreement with an approach that focuses solely on the personal aspects of psychology.
neglecting the historical and collective influences. He emphasizes that our psyche is significantly shaped by historical context, parental influence, and societal norms, which are deeply ingrained and impact our psychological development. Let's now take a closer look at the personal shadow. In the Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9, Part 2, Ion, Carl Jung says, Closer examination of the dark characteristics, that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow, reveals that they have an emotional nature a kind of autonomy and accordingly an obsessive or better possessive quality these are usually aspects of the personality which one tries to hide repress and deny to oneself and others because they are things which one has no wish to be failing to recognize and deal with our shadow can lead to significant problems think about a time when you felt an intense irrational emotion was it really about what was happening at that moment or was it something deeper let me know in the comments the shadow is most visible when one is in the grip of anxiety or other emotions for example under the influence of alcohol one may suddenly blurt out a hostile remark during a friendly conversation when we do not want to assimilate what we despise we project it onto others many people refuse to recognize their shadow so completely that the ego is not even aware of shadow behavior and thus has no possibility of commanding it under these conditions phenomenon that takes place in so-called living bodies, then it is a quality of matter.
As our body consists of matter, we discover that this matter has another aspect, namely a psychic aspect. Let's now explore the positive aspects of understanding our shadow from the book C.G. Jung Speaking, Interviews and Encounters.
When you observe the world you see people, you see houses, you see the sky, you see tangible objects. But when you observe yourself within, you see moving images, a world of images, generally known as fantasies. Yet these fantasies are facts.
You see, it is a fact that a man has such and such a fantasy, such a tangible fact, that when a man has a certain fantasy, another man may lose his life, or a bridge may be built. These houses were all fantasies. Everything you do here. all of the houses, everything was fantasy to begin with, and fantasy has a proper reality. This should not be forgotten.
Fantasy is not nothing. It is of course not a tangible object, but it is a fact nevertheless. There is an impersonal stratum in our psyche.
And I can tell you an example. We had a patient in the ward. He was quiet but completely dissociated.
schizophrenic and he was in the clinic already for over 20 years. He had come into the clinic as a matter of fact being a young man, a little girl and his own particular education. And once I came to the war and he was obviously excited and called to me, took me by the label of my coat and led me to the window and said, Doctor, now you will see. Now look at it. Look up at the sun and see how it moves.
See, you must move your head too like this and then you will see the follows of the sun. You know, that's the origin of the wind. And you see how the sun moves as you move your head from one side to the other. Now, of course, I didn't understand it at all.
I thought, oh, there you are. He's just crazy. But that case remained in my mind.
And four years later, I came across A paper written by the German historian Dietrich, who had dealt with the so-called Mitras liturgy, a part of the great Parisian social papyrus. And there he produced the part of the so-called mitra's liturgy namely it says there after the second prayer thou will see how the disc of the sun unfolds and you will see hanging down from it the tube the origin of the wind and when you move thy face and face to the regions of the east it will move there and if you move your face to the region of the west it will follow you and instantly i know and you now this is it this is the vision of my patient but how could you be sure that your patient wasn't unconsciously recording something that somebody had told you oh no quite out of question because that thing was not known it was in a magic papyrus Paris and it wasn't even published. It was only published four years later after I had observed it with my patient. And this you felt proved that there was an unconscious which was something more than personal.
Oh well that was not a proof to me but it was a hint and I took the hint. Yes. These examples are crucial because they highlight Carl Jung's deep understanding of the unconscious mind and how it affects our behavior and perceptions.
By showing that fantasies and dreams have a tangible reality, Jung stresses that the unconscious is not just a storage place for forgotten or repressed thoughts. Instead, it is an active and powerful part of our psyche that significantly shapes our experiences and actions. This helps us understand that our inner world is just as real and influential as the external world we see around us. Throughout his writing, Jung refers to the importance of developing awareness of the shadow in psychotherapy and its projections in the individual's life although the shadow is usually perceived as negative it can also be positive in fact exploring our shadow gives us access to many positive qualities jung explains to us with these quotes from the collected works of c g jung volume nine part two the first of these is the shadow that hidden repressed for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious. If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is, his shadow, does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc.
The man is not complete. if he is not conscious of that aspect of things. So, a man is not complete when he lives in a world of statistical truth.
He must live in a world of his biological truth. That is his biological truth, that is not he which statistics. the expression of what he really is, as what he feels himself. These explanations highlight Jung's views on the shadow and the self, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and integrating all aspects of our personality to achieve psychological wholeness. One of Jung's closest collaborators, Marie-Louise von Franz, writes in Man and His Symbols, Part 3, The Process of Individuation, The Realization of the Shadow.
The shadow is not necessarily always an opponent. In fact, he is exactly like any human being with whom one has to get along, sometimes by giving in. sometimes by resisting, sometimes by giving love, whatever the situation requires, the shadow becomes hostile only when he is ignored or misunderstood.
Well, in practical life they emerge, but the personal shadow is the personal shortcomings of things which every human being could be conscious of, which is not archetypal, and therefore not a mystery. For instance, such things as Greed for money or jealousy. Jealousy is one of the main aspects of the shadow. Or laziness, sloppiness, unrelatedness, sentimentality and whatnot. Inferiorities which everybody has but prefers not to know about.
As to the personal nature of the unconscious, the personal quality of the unconscious. in a given case, where you take an extravert. Well, his unconscious has then an introverted quality, because all the extraverted qualities are played in consciousness, and the introvert is not the non-conscious, therefore it has introverted qualities, and so on with the conscious, the same. That gave me a lead of the diagnostic value, and it helped me. to understand my patients.
Both Marie-Louise von Franz and Carl Jung collectively stress that acknowledging, understanding and integrating the shadow, a complex, emotional and personal part of our unconscious, is essential for achieving psychological wholeness and self-awareness. To better understand this, let's visualize the shadow. Imagine your shadow as a dark figure following you around.
At first, it seems intimidating, but as you turn to face it, you realize it's just a part of you that needs understanding and compassion. for instance a person might believe that being assertive is being rude or aggressive losing the qualities of confidence and the ability to speak up for himself in an honest and respectful way which in turn may lead to less proactivity make it more difficult to get a raise or job promotion struggle with money and so on so when a person encounters an assertive person deep down he feels resentment and guilt which makes his shadow blacker and denser These valuable aspects ought to be assimilated into actual experience and not repressed. It is up to the ego to give up its pride. Because your conscience is in a compensated relation to consciousness and after a while you take the full picture.
And if you have the full picture and has the necessary moral stamina, well then you can be cured. But in the end it is a moral question whether a man applies or he has learned or not. It is the manifestation of the situation of the unconscious, looked at from the unconscious. To put this into practice, let's talk about actionable advice for shadow work.
To start your own shadow work, try keeping a journal. Write down moments when you felt a strong emotional reaction and reflect on what might have caused it. Over time, you'll start to see patterns that reveal your hidden shadow. Observe your emotional reactions throughout the day.
When you notice a strong reaction, take a moment to pause and ask yourself what triggered it. Write down your observations to identify patterns. We also encounter our shadow in our dreams as a person of the same sex as the dreamer.
It is what seems to be a criticism of our character from the unconscious, an inner judge of your own being that reproaches you, and the result is usually embarrassed silence. We must identify the contents of the shadow. and integrate them into our personality.
It is a regular observation that when you talk to an individual and this individual gives you insight into its inner preoccupations, interests, emotions, in other words, hands over his... personal complexes. Then you get slowly and willy-willy into the situation of a sort of authority, a point of, you become a point of reference.
Jung suggests that by confronting and integrating our shadow, we can transform these repressed aspects into a source of inner authority and self-awareness. becoming a point of reference for our own personal growth. Let's now explore how to integrate shadow aspects into our lives.
Through the analysis of dreams, for instance, you become acquainted with the contents of the unconscious. This is the process of the realization of the shadow, also known as shadow work. Here begins the painful and lengthy work of self-education. One must enter into long and difficult negotiations with the shadow, a work, we might say, that is the psychological equivalent of the labors of Sisyphus.
Through shadow work, one can observe one's shadow outwardly by watching one's emotional reactions and being radically honest about one's interactions with others, and inwardly by exploring one's dreams. Before we delve into the fascinating ways our shadow manifests in our lives, let's first understand how this hidden aspect intricately weaves into the very fabric of our identity. In Carl Jung's Collected Works, Volume 13, alchemical studies, Jung tells us that one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable, and therefore not popular. With a deeper understanding of our identity, it's time to witness the shadow in action. Let's explore how this concealed part of ourselves manifests in everyday behaviors and decisions.
Understanding our shadow is crucial, but it doesn't have to be a daunting task. it can be a fascinating journey of self-discovery. This allows one to become enlightened and reduces the shadow's destructive potential, not so much as it were by waging war against the darkness, but by bringing the darkness to the light, the light to the darkness. From Carl Jung's Collected Works, Volume 12, Psychology and Alchemy, there is no light without shadow, and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. However scary or dark it is to confront our shadow, finding truth brings relief.
Discernment of the truth is the process of authenticity, a painstaking excavation into the depths of our being to explore possibilities and limitations, distortions, the buried, and often forgotten parts of ourselves and abilities. Most people, however, are too indolent to think deeply about even those moral aspects of their behavior of which they are conscious, let alone to consider how the unconscious affects them. Here's another actionable step you can take. In your daily interactions, practice being radically honest with yourself. If you feel irritation or discomfort, reflect on whether these feelings might be related to your shadow.
Look for synchronicities that may provide insights. Now that we've covered the personal shadow, let's explore the collective shadow. The shadow can also consist of factors that stem from a source outside the individual's personal life.
Here is when we stumble upon the collective shadow, the dark side, or the unknown or little-known aspects of a society and culture. It consists of that which opposes our shared and collective values. To understand this better, let's look at the broader implications of the collective shadow.
Archetypal ideas, a stream of archetypal ideas that goes on through one individual through the centuries. You see, it's like a continual stream, and that comes then to the daylight in the great moments. say in political movements or in spiritual movements.
For instance, in the time before Reformation, people dreamt of great change. And that's the reason why such great transformations could be predicted. If somebody has been clever enough to see what is going on in people's minds, in the unconscious.
mine would be able to predict it. For instance, I have predicted the Nazi rising in Germany through the observation of my German patients. They had dreams in which the whole thing was anticipated and in considerable detail.
The collective shadow, a vast and often horrifying aspect of human life, inflicts immense harm on both humanity and the natural world. leaving lasting effects across generations, manifesting through projected darkness, violence, oppression, and denial of responsibility. It emerges in wars, genocides and cultural deaths. This pervasive yet elusive interdimensional force breeds atrocities, persecution and widespread suffering, hiding under seemingly benevolent actions like language enforcement.
Outwardly, it shows as physical suffering, poverty and crime, while inwardly it fosters self-hatred, depression and a desire for revenge, causing others to endure similar suffering. Let's dive deeper into the collective shadow and its relation to evil. The collective shadow has long been labelled as evil, akin to the devil in Christian tradition, where possession strips away one's humanity, replacing it with a demonic nature.
For Jung, the primary response to such evil lies in the relentless quest for self-knowledge and wholeness. Each individual must recognise the full spectrum of their capabilities, knowing both the extent of the good they can achieve It's no question, it doesn't appear. But the moment you transcend your personal sphere and come to your unpersonal determinants, say, to the question, a political question, or any other social question, which really matters to you, then you are confronted with a collective problem, and then you have collective truth. When there is an issue known in a particular society, it can be called a shadow issue. if there is evidence of denial, projection, and a lack of taking individual and collective responsibility.
Therefore, taking responsibility, morally, politically, and spiritually, is particularly crucial. The courage with which we bear our darkness frees others from having to carry it for us. To illustrate, let's discuss dealing with the past and taking responsibility. To respond to massive historical suffering, wars, genocides, holocausts, and pervasive oppression, the effects of which persist, we must learn much as human beings denial often connected with a wish to get on with things and put the past behind us is the most common approach and usually the first reaction many attempts have been made to deal with painful pasts through public apologies repentance reparation payments pilgrimages to places of suffering etc but how do we integrate the shadow deeply and broadly within a population rather than symbolically through leaders or policies Remembering and speaking the unspeakable is a painful process for victims, perpetrators, bystanders and witnesses. Such a process is successful or reasonably complete once pain, outrage, betrayal, suffering and all other feelings have been voiced and heard and responsibility has been taken.
Truth-telling is both the most desirable and feasible way to grapple with a difficult past. The world hangs on a thin thread. And that is the psyche of man. Assume that certain fellows in Moscow lose their nerve for the common sense for a bit. And the whole world is in fire and flames.
It is nowadays we are not threatened by elementary catastrophes. There's no such thing as an age problem. That is all man's doing. We are the great danger.
Psyche is the great danger. What if something goes wrong with the psyche? And so it is demonstrated to us in our days what the power of the psyche is for man. How important it is to know something about it. But we know nothing about it.
Nobody would. would give credit to the idea that the tactical processes of the ordinary man have any importance whatever. One example of a terrible mass psychosis represented by the collective shadow is systemic racism and police brutality, where deep-seated prejudices and personal biases escalate into widespread discrimination and violence. Ordinary people, under certain conditions, participate in or tacitly support actions they wouldn't normally consider. The personal shadow is the bridge to the collective shadow.
Thus, solving one's inner conflicts is crucial to avoid unconsciously falling into the collective shadow, often revealed through synchronicities. By doing so, one can influence others, benefiting society as a whole. Suppose a patient comes to that level or... that this conflict begins to become really very serious, that this mind might suffer.
Then we can have a collective dream. monitoring our emotional responses and analyzing our dreams. This process prevents us from becoming unwitting victims of our shadow and unconscious projections, allowing us to uncover and harness the positive traits within us, ultimately enriching our lives and those around us. By acknowledging the collective shadow, we can avoid its influence and take responsibility for addressing ignored issues and the absence of personal and collective action. Embracing our darkness with courage, not only brings relief to others, but also ensures that we confront and rectify the past, preventing the shadow from intensifying and history from repeating itself.
You see, everyone who says that I'm a mystic, you know, is just an idiot. Well, he doesn't understand the first word of psychology.