The Wonder of the Human Person - Some Books to Ponder VII

A Brief Jungian Interlude

This week, I wish to discuss two books about that psychic reality Jung called succinctly and aptly "the Shadow."  Jung stressed that  "[E]veryone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."   The Shadow or "shadow aspect" of our psyche may refer to (1) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious, or (2) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not recognize in itself. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative.   However, it has positive aspects, which are recognized once the Shadow has been accepted and integrated into the psyche.  In this brief review I wish to discuss two books I have read on Jung's concept of "the Shadow."

1. Romancing The Shadow

Romancing The Shadow: How to Access the Power hidden in our Dark Side, Harper Collins, London, 1997 is written by two psychologists/psychotherapists, Dr Connie Zweig and Dr Steve Wolf.  As the cliché goes, this book "does exactly as it says on the tin."  In literature, one can point to a number of novels that portray the conflict between the public outer persona (that is, the mask) and the inner unacknowledged reality of The Shadow, as, for example in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  Zweig and Wolf instance Oscar Wilde's equally classic horror novel The Picture of Dorian Gray as their literary example.  They point out that we each of us is like Dorian Gray (or Mr Hyde for that matter) insofar as we have a shadow side that we hide from the world, or if you like we each of us have an "alter ego" in the darkest sense of this latter concept. 

Zweig and Wolf describe our motivations thus:

Each of us is like Dorian Gray.  We seek to present a beautiful, innocent face to the world; a kind courteous demeanor (sic); a youthful, intelligent image.  And so, unknowingly but inevitably, we push away those qualities that do not fit the image, and do not enhance our self-esteem... We shove into the dark cavern of the unconscious feelings that make us uneasy - hatred, rage, jealousy, greed, competition, lust, shame - and those behaviors (sic) that are deemed wrong by the culture - addiction, laziness, aggression, dependency - thereby creating what could be called shadow content... (Op. cit., pp. 3-4)

The title of this book is enchanting because the authors deliberately use the word "romance" which connotes "to bewitch," "to charm," "to entice", "to allure," "to fascinate" or "to captivate utterly."  In other words, our authors are informing us that we need to allure or entice or charm our shadow out of its hiding place(s). They continue

We need to sharpen our senses to be awake enough when it erupts.  Then we can learn to romance it, to coax it out, to seduce it into awareness.... (Ibid., p. 5)

However, they go on to warn us that the shadow is a tough taskmaster, which requires persistent work, courage even in facing up to its demands, and even deep compassion.  Our authors don't underestimate the challenge of the task as they say that "the compassion of a Buddha" is needed.  This reader anyway, feels that this is overstretching the challenge too much.  Which of us has the strength or wisdom of a Buddha?  Well maybe, through persistent soul work, meditation and so on.

And why is this romancing of the Shadow such a challenge?  Well, the answer is simply put: to face the selfish, and dare I say it, the evil desires that lie crouching in the darker corners of every individual's psyche requires no little courage.  It certainly is not for the fainthearted. In other words, these desires, which are repressed, will come suddenly to the fore eventually and force themselves into our waking world in the hope of being acknowledged and later integrated by us into the wholeness of the psyche. 

This is a well-written and wise book.  If you are looking for challenge and wise advice, seek it here.  If you are looking for intellectual understanding, go elsewhere.  Though our authors are learned in psychology, they are wiser in their practical application and therapeutic use of that knowledge.  Both authors address the reader directly at the beginning by giving examples from their own lives as to how they themselves integrated their respective shadows.

Topics covered in this gripping book are: the roots of the shadow in culture, encounters with the shadow in situations of abuse, abandonment, addiction,  criticism, power, sex, greed and so on.  The topic is also addressed as a reality encountered in the family as a whole, the community or society in general as well as in the more obvious individual sense.  The shadow phenomenon is traced in the lives of single, married, divorced or separated people and in the developing person over his or her lifespan.

The aspect of this book that I found most enriching is the practical section at the end of the book entitled "A Shadow-Work Handbook" (Ibid., pp. 308-316) which offer suggestions as to how to engage in shadow-work.  There is also an extremely useful four-page guide to commonly used Greek allusions in psychodynamics. (Ibid., pp. 317-320)

If you are into psychodynamic therapy you will find this a gripping read. 

2. Owning Your Own Shadow

Owning Your Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, New York, HarperCollins, 1993.  This book is written by Robert A. Johnson, the world-renowned Jungian analyst, lecturer and author.  Like the above book, this is a very accessible read, and it, too, "does exactly what it says on the tin," insofar as it helps the reader in a deep therapeutic fashion to engage with the Shadow and thereby integrate it into the psyche. Within paragraphs of reading this rich little classic one is confronted with words we associate with Jung: "whole," "opposites", "balance," "losing one's balance," "integration" and "individuation."  Johnson points out that it is a given of our human experience that  creativity is balanced with destruction, and our author writes poetically and metaphorically here to stress his point:

Whenever we pluck the fruit of creativity from the golden tree our other hand plucks the fruit of destruction...  We would love to have creativity without destruction, but that is not possible. (op cit., p. 12)

Again, reading page 26, we are faced with some sobering insights:

To refuse the dark side of one's nature is to store up or accumulate the darkness: this is later expressed as a dark mood, psychosomatic illness, or unconsciously inspired accidents.

Johnson also alludes to the work of the Shadow on a national level in recent history, instancing how one of the most highly civilized nations on earth, Germany, fell into the utter evil of projecting its virulent shadow on the Jewish people. (See pp. 29-30).  A good question to ask ourselves both individually and as a group is on whom are we projecting our shadow when we are envious, hateful, spiteful and angry.  In other words there are two shadows, which Johnson brings before our consciousness in this little classic, namely (i) the personal and (ii) the cultural..  The task of each individual and each nation is to own and integrate their shadow.  

Again, Johnson offers some rich insights, for example that the synthesis of ego plus shadow equals love.  This is an equation worth pondering.  His thoughts on hero-worship are also worth thinking about:

Our hero-worshiping (sic) capacity is pure shadow; in this case our finest qualities are refused and laid on another.  It is hard to understand, but we often refuse to bear our noble traits and instead find a shadow substitute for them.  (Ibid., p. 42)

Again, if I hero-worship someone I know, perhaps I am placing a very heavy burden on their shoulders.

Finally, Dr Johnson  appraises us of an old medieval Christian image, namely that of the mandorla, which was seen as particularly healing.  A mandorla is that almond-shaped section that is made where two circles partly overlap.  This image signifies "nothing less than the overlap of the opposites that we have been investigating. Generally the mandorla is described as the overlap between heaven and earth." (see pp. 98-99)