Jung – Shadow

The sad truth wrote Carl Jung is that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites day and night birth and death happiness and misery good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail over the other that good will overcome evil or joy to feed pain.

Life is a battleground it always has been and always will be, of the many metaphors used to describe a life in process the metaphor of a battle is one of the more appropriate in this battle our own self is both our greatest ally and greatest opponent with a dynamic tension existing between those elements of our personality, moving us forward into personal growth and those holding us back each person must also contend with the potential for both good and evil. That lies within whether our strengths and capacity for good get the upper hand or our weakness and capacity for evil is very much a product of this battle waged within the self.

Far too many people however set themselves up for defeat as they are unwilling to acknowledge the destructive side of their being, utilizing various psychological defense mechanisms, such people do their best to stay ignorant to their faults and weaknesses. In so doing these elements of

their personality are relegated to their unconscious and make up the realm of the psyche, Jung called the “shadow”.

The shadow exerts an active influence on our personality and affects our behavior in a myriad of unforeseen ways, when we behave in a manner which is a product of our shadow, perhaps we treat someone poorly or take part in the self-destructive behavior rather than taking responsibility for such actions most people make use of the psychological phenomenon known as “projection”.

In order to avoid facing up to their shadow, we are going to explore the phenomenon of projection, by looking at the dangers it poses to the well-being of both the individual and society at large.

Projection occurs when we attribute an element of our personality which resides in our unconscious to another person or a group we can project both negative and positive characteristics, however there is a greater tendency to project the former rather than the latter Sigmund Freud who popularized the term in the mid 1890s believed projection to be a defense mechanism used to avoid the anxiety that is provoked when one is forced “to face up to their faults, weaknesses and tendencies”.

Jung’s view of projection was similar to Freud’s and as he explains an archaic man projection is one of the commonest psychic phenomena, everything that is unconscious in ourselves, we discover in our neighbor and we treat him accordingly.

Jung however stressed that projection was both an inevitable and necessary component in our psychological development as it is one of the primary means by which we can gain an awareness of elements residing in our unconscious, after projecting an element of our unconscious the healthy thing to do is to recognize the subjective origin of the projection to withdraw it from the external world and to integrate this element of our

personality into conscious awareness.

Only by withdrawing our projections and becoming aware of the faults. We previously projected onto others can we ever hope to take corrective measures this process of withdrawal and integration is the difficult task for it takes courage to face up to one’s weaknesses and dark qualities, but while

difficult this task is crucial in the battle of life for failure.

To confront one’s shadow leaves these elements free to grow in scope and influence as you go explains, when one tries desperately to be good and wonderful and perfect. Then all the more the shadow develops a definite will to be black and evil and destructive, people cannot see that they are always striving to be marvellous and then they discover, that terrible destructive things happen which they cannot understand.

And they either deny that such facts have anything to do with them or if they admit them. They take them for natural afflictions or they try to minimize them and to shift the responsibility elsewhere, the fact is that if one tries beyond one’s capacity to be perfect, “the shadow descends into

Hell and becomes the devil”.

Those who rely too heavily on projection, to shield them from their shadow who never strive to question, whether the image they hold of themselves is perhaps too perfect go through life forever in need of scapegoats or people on whom to blame.

All their problems often a friend or family member is chosen as one scapegoat but the problem with this choice is that it, irreparably damages and in many cases forces an end to the relationship.

After driving away one scapegoat, it is usually discovered that one’s problems persist, nonetheless this Spurs some to look within, and to face up to the elements of their personal, they have for so long, tried to deny but rather than partaking in this internal reflection. Most people merely look for another scapegoat in this process, it is often discovered that the most effective form of scapegoat is not any individual in particular but rather entire groups of people.

This tendency of scapegoating to occur on a collective level can have dangerous consequences for a society, those unwilling or unable to face up to their shadows are easy prey for collectivist movements which have ready-made scapegoats in the form of political opponents members of different ethnic, groups or socio-economic classes.

Scapegoating at the level of collectives or in other words projecting our problems onto groups of people who differ from us proves attractive for

several reasons, it allows us to avoid the damage to our personal relationships which occurs, when we use someone close to us as a scapegoat furthermore given that our interactions with members of the scapegoated group are usually limited.

We do not risk awakening to the realization, that these people are not nearly like the distorted image of them we hold in our psyche scapegoating at a group level is made easier by the fact that those in the scapegoated group being composed of individuals with their own weaknesses and flaws may in fact behave in ways that provide legitimate reasons for indignation or as you.

Important not that these others are wholly without blame, for even the worst projection is at least hung on a hook perhaps a very, small one but still a hook offered by the other person but as Jung recognized there is a tendency within collectivist movements to take this small hook offered by one’s opponents and to hang on it virtually all that is wrong with

oneself in the world when we cast a group of people in this negative light

seeing them as the primary source of all that ails a society it becomes possible to justify persecution violence and perhaps even extermination of the group.

In question projection at the level of collectives, becomes even more dangerous, as those in positions of power can divert attention away from their own activities in the harm.

They may be causing by using propaganda false flags and other manipulation techniques in order to cast blame onto ready-made scapegoats due to the terrible consequences that can emerge at both the level of the individual and of society.

When we fail to recognize, in the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn that “the line dividing and evil cuts through the heart of every human being it is of the utmost importance that we strive to recognize our shadow qualities and to integrate them into our conscious awareness, only then will we be in an adequate position to evaluate, the true sources of evil in this world”

On the other hand if we fail to recognize the subjective origin of our projections, not only will our own well-being suffer but we will contribute on a global scale to much unnecessary conflict.

Jung went as far as to suggest that a psychological projection at a collective level became too widespread, war would be the likely outcome for he believed that.

The greatest danger to civilisation lay not in the weapons, we have at our disposal but in our inability to understand our own selves for it is this ignorance and the failure “to face up to our own weaknesses and destructiveness” that causes what should be an internal battle to manifest itself in the external world.

Modern people wrote Jung, are ignorant of what they really are, we have simply forgotten what a human being really is so we have men like Nietzsche and Freud and Adler who tell us what we are quite mercilessly we have to discover our shadow, otherwise we are driven into a world war in order to see what beasts, we are!

This concept is so important for humanity to recognize. The source of all brutality and evil is the refusal to recognize the shadow. Tyranny and wide spread violence always manifests itself under the illusion of pure righteousness and virtue. It’s when someone is entirely unaware of their own capacity for evil and hatred that they become a weapon against others.

The shadow signifies a far more literary personification, the shadow is perceived as an entity of its own that is welded and chained within the realm of our deep unconscious, mind a dark specter that we all possess but also one too frightening.

For many people to ever build the courage to face a specter that can never

be defeated but if tamed can lead to personal cultivation and the evolution of the mind and body, but what is the shadow according to Jung?

The shadow possesses the most inferior characteristics of the psyche that all men tried to relinquish the shadow might be desired found upon by our consciousness appears it could be a bizarre or unhealthy interest.

But for the most part the shadow lies beyond the threshold of human awareness it is quite within the possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil it is a frightening thought.

That man also has a shadow side to him consisting not just of little but of a positively demonic dynamism, the individual seldom knows anything of this to him as an individual. It is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself but let these harmless creatures form a mass and there are merges and ranging monster and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster’s body.

So that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages.

Jung also stresses the importance of externalizing shadow material through socially acceptable channels to bring into tearin darkness, is able to integrate rather than repress unpleasant unconscious impulses, when merely repressed the shadow finds away the cracks of the sight can jump selves in disturbing ways.

Even that every human being has a wide variety and range of traits impulses and

emotions every individual by necessity, has a shadow some of these characteristics are oppressed and hidden both to oneself and others to oneself.

So that one can navigate through life with the conviction that one is a wholly good and virtuous human being and to others, so that one can fit and succeed socially.

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 at all counts. When one’s shadow was relegated to the depths of the unconscious, it can wreak havoc on one’s life in the sense that it

will desert unconscious control over one’s thoughts emotions choices and actions.

As Jung said that which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate this accounts for the self-destructive behavior, so many individuals struggle with able to control despite consciously knowing they would be better off not engaging in such actions the task in life which thus confronts.

Everyone according to Jung is to become conscious of and integrate one shadow into one’s conscious personality accepting it with open arms not as an important aspect of one’s life but as a necessary and vital part of one’s being one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light.

But by making the darkness conscious the concept of the shadow has been both championed and critiqued among opposing perspectives most theologians, say we cannot solely rely on ourselves and the limited power of the ego to deal with a shadow instead we must call on the power of God to overcome evil, you can’t do it alone “beam on the Lord the religious person” exclaims.

Meanwhile Jung is warned of a projection trap that some traditional

religious person seems to fall into Jung tend to say that the sanctimonious individuals and related religious organizations project their own dark impulses onto others instead of facing the evil within themselves, this ugly dynamic may result in scapegoating.

Luckily we have laws in the civilised world to protect people from this kind of primitive mentality Jung’s followers also tend to imply that the spirituality of organized religion only goes as deep as a true sauna, where individuals play a superficial role of holiness for the sake of appearances and to feel good about themselves.

The shadow within him is of a foreign entity an external enemy ceaselessly attempting to pierce in the heart of the righteous and corrupt all good men. Man

forgets that the devil itself is not an outsider but is harbored deep within a dark fortress inside of his own subconscious.

Ironically according to Jung we may all need to become the Exorcist of our inner most demons. Jung says the shadow must be confronted when repressed the shadow lurks like an angry dragon locked up in the dungeon, if not sublimated which simply means the transformation of unwanted impulses into something less harmful, the shadows sheer power can break free of its chains causing severe psychological and possibly physical injury.

Jung believed that all inspiring creativity was conceived once an individual had formed a union or bond with the shadow, encourages awareness and mastery over the powers of darkness when we must deal with problems. We instinctively resist trying the way that leads to obscurity.