Item: A Friend of the
Devil is a Friend of Mine
- Dealing with the
Shadow
“The shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part
inferior & 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”
- Carl G Jung
Jung’s conception of “the shadow” embodies the unknown
“dark side” of our personality. Dark, because its nature is
driven by the primitive, superstitious, socially and/or
religiously outcast human emotions such as: lust, greed, envy,
fear… and the resulting striving for power. Due to its
primitive, unenlightened nature, the dark side is... by and large...
obscured from our emerging consciousness. That which we deem
evil, inferior or unacceptable and so deny in ourselves...
becomes part of the shadow. According to Jungian analyst Aniela
Jaffe, the shadow is the “sum of all personal and collective
psychic elements which, because of their incompatibility with
the chosen conscious attitude, are denied expression in life.”
Jung differentiated between the personal shadow and the
impersonal or archetypal shadow, which acknowledges
transpersonal, culturally perceived evil, as symbolized by the
Devil and Demons… and the periodic outbreak of collective evil,
as demonstrated by the atrocities inflicted upon the innocent,
during that collective and apparently contagious insanity we
call war.
For Jung, the theory of the shadow was a metaphorical
means of conveying the prominent role played by the unconscious
in both psychopathology and within the perennial problem of
evil. In developing his paradoxical conception of the shadow,
Jung sought to provide a more nuanced understanding of the
unconscious... both individual and collective. The shadow was
originally Jung’s poetic term for the totality of the
unconscious, a notion he borrowed from philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche.
The shadow is most destructive, insidious and dangerous when
habitually repressed and projected, manifesting in myriad
psychological disturbances ranging from neurosis to psychosis to
irrational interpersonal hostility. Such toxic symptoms,
attitudes and behavior stem from being possessed or driven by
the dissociated yet undaunted shadow. Robert Louis Stevenson’s
classic tale: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
can be taken as a cautionary tale par excellence...
ie: the dissociation of the shadow, resulting in a perilously
lopsided development of the conscious personality and
consequently rendering one susceptible to destructive possession
by the disowned shadow.
In that tale, the excessively
good character, Dr. Henry Jekyll, is at times taken over, body
and soul by his equally evil shadow: the depraved, nefarious,
psychopathic, wicked Edward Hyde… his complete opposite. Indeed,
the shadow contains all those qualities we hide from ourselves
and others, but which remain active within the unconscious,
forming a sort of ‘‘splinter personality’’ or complex, not
unlike the relatively autonomous sub-personalities found in
multiple personality or dissociative identity disorder… or, to
use a more archaic example, in the so-called demonic possession
or demonism.
Under extreme stress... or in states of fatigue or intoxication,
this compensatory alter ego or shadow complex can be triggered
into temporarily taking total command of the conscious will. The
abject negativity and destructiveness of the shadow is largely a
function of the degree to which the individual neglects and
refuses to take responsibility for it… only inflaming its
ferocity and pernicious power. The shadow’s sometimes
overwhelming strength and disturbing ability to intrude into
one’s cognitions, affects and behavior... has historically been
experienced and misinterpreted as demonic possession, for which
exorcism is believed to be the only treatment.
Foremost for Jung was the task of further illuminating the
shadowy problem of human evil and the prodigious dangers of
excessive unconsciousness. Jung’s psychological construct of the
shadow corresponds to, and yet differs fundamentally from the
idea of the Devil or Satan in theology. He intentionally
employed the more mundane, banal, less esoteric or metaphysical
terminology: the shadow and: the unconscious
...instead of the traditional religious language of god, devil,
daimon or mana. For Jung, depth psychological
designations such as the shadow or the unconscious, were far
better articulations than were religious concepts… “which are
controversial and therefore tend to breed fanaticism.”
The shadow is a primordial part of our human inheritance, which
is deeply embedded within each of us, and can never be eluded.
The pervasive Freudian defense mechanism known as
projection is how most people deny their shadow,
unconsciously casting it onto others so as to avoid confronting
it in oneself. Such projection of the shadow is engaged in not
only by individuals but groups, cults, religions, and entire
countries, and commonly occurs during wars and other contentious
conflicts in which the outsider, enemy or adversary is made a
scapegoat, dehumanized, and demonized. Two World Wars and the
current escalation of violence testify to the terrible truth of
this collective phenomenon.
Since the turn of the twenty-first century we have witnessed a
menacing resurgence of epidemic demonization or collective
psychosis in such manifestations as... the seemingly inevitable
violent global collision between radical Islam and
fundamentalist Christian culture... as well as the rise of
nationalist and fascist fervor. Each faction of these cultural
abnormalities, project their collective shadow and perceive the
other as evil incarnate.
Jung well understood the daimonic nature of the unconscious, and
that the compensatory effects of the shadow upon individuals,
couples, groups and nations could be beneficial as well: “If
it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the
source of all 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.”
Working with
dream material is
crucial to comprehending and dealing creatively with the shadow.
The shadow tends to appear in dreams as a figure of the same sex
as the dreamer, but Jung draws a distinction between the
personal shadow and the anima or animus, symbolized in dreams as
the opposite sex. Typically, it is the subjective experience of
the shadow or evil… and its disquieting and de-habilitating
effects which motivates the person to seek what Jung called
individuation, which spurs one toward new growth, maturation,
balance, wholeness and integration.
Creativity can spring from the
constructive expression or integration of the shadow, as can
true spirituality. Authentic spirituality requires consciously
accepting and relating properly to the shadow as opposed to
repressing, projecting, acting out and remaining naively
unconscious of its repudiated, denied, disavowed contents, a
sort of precarious pseudo-spirituality. Bringing the shadow to
consciousness is a psychological problem of the highest moral
significance. It demands that the individual hold him or herself
accountable not only for what happens to her/him, but also for
what he/she projects. . .
Indeed, in many ways we need
the shadow, and must therefore learn to develop a more conscious
and constructive relationship to it. Without the conscious
inclusion of the shadow in daily life there cannot be a positive
relationship to other people, or to the creative sources in the
soul. Ultimately, the integration of the shadow is what allows
each of us to develop and nurture an intimate, individual
relationship to the Divine.
- adapted from the writings of Stephen
D Diamond, PhD
