“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.” -Carl Jung
Carl Jung spoke of the "shadow aspect" to refer to the unknown and hidden aspects of the personality. Also known as the disowned self, these are the forbidden feelings and behaviors that are denied and relegated to the unconscious. Though we may repress unsavory characteristics, they are not safely contained simply through our denial of them. In fact, because we are unwilling to accept and admit to these faults, they often exert unconscious control over our actions and emotions, all the while, we project them onto or revile them in others. Jung and his contemporary, Fritz Kunkel, believed that in order to truly express the Self, to be whole, we must embrace and integrate the shadow aspects of ourselves.
Jung contended that it takes "considerable moral effort" to shed light on the shadow to bring it into consciousness. The refusal to do so, however, comes at great costs.
"It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others, yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going."
Jung's poignant statement on how the individual's unwillingness to confront their shadow can lead to pain and suffering for themselves and others can be applied to the personality of our national culture. Our persistent denial of the pain we inflict(ed), the racism and oppression we perpetuate, and our refusal to see the destructive hierarchies of power that are deeply embedded in the fabric of life and the structure of our institutions from our country's founding--leads not only to continued harm of our own citizens, but our own stunted growth as we live as a split self, incapable of true individuation, progress, or growth. We live a lie when we deny the worst in ourselves. Resolving our shadow means reckoning with the reality of our character as a nation, feeling the grief and pain that comes with understanding what torments and terrors we have inflicted, and asking ourselves, what is it that we are getting out of these acts of dehumanization and what are we afraid we will lose if we put an end to the cycle of oppression?
There are rewards that come with doing the moral work of shadow integration. No longer held captive by a unconscious rage, hate, shame, bitterness, no longer living as a hypocrite that professes equality and freedom while pushing into the deep recesses of our consciousness, the inherently unequal nature of our society, we may find the power to move forward with courage and commitment to truth and justice.
In Meeting the Shadow: the Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature, John Sanford, a Jungian analyst, responds to an interviewer in this way when asked about the merits of shadow work:
"What Kunkel called the 'real center' of the personality begins to emerge, and gradually the ego is re-oriented to a closer relationship without real center. Then a person is much less likely to become affiliated with genuine evil, because the integration of the shadow is always concurrent with the dissolution of the false persona. One becomes much more realistic about oneself; seeing the truth about one's own nature always has very salutary effects. Honesty is the great defense against genuine evil. When we stop lying to ourselves about ourselves, that's the greatest protection we can have against evil."
Edward Whitmont, in the same collection of writings on the shadow, says this: "It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality."
Jung contended that it takes "considerable moral effort" to shed light on the shadow to bring it into consciousness. The refusal to do so, however, comes at great costs.
"It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others, yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going."
Jung's poignant statement on how the individual's unwillingness to confront their shadow can lead to pain and suffering for themselves and others can be applied to the personality of our national culture. Our persistent denial of the pain we inflict(ed), the racism and oppression we perpetuate, and our refusal to see the destructive hierarchies of power that are deeply embedded in the fabric of life and the structure of our institutions from our country's founding--leads not only to continued harm of our own citizens, but our own stunted growth as we live as a split self, incapable of true individuation, progress, or growth. We live a lie when we deny the worst in ourselves. Resolving our shadow means reckoning with the reality of our character as a nation, feeling the grief and pain that comes with understanding what torments and terrors we have inflicted, and asking ourselves, what is it that we are getting out of these acts of dehumanization and what are we afraid we will lose if we put an end to the cycle of oppression?
There are rewards that come with doing the moral work of shadow integration. No longer held captive by a unconscious rage, hate, shame, bitterness, no longer living as a hypocrite that professes equality and freedom while pushing into the deep recesses of our consciousness, the inherently unequal nature of our society, we may find the power to move forward with courage and commitment to truth and justice.
In Meeting the Shadow: the Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature, John Sanford, a Jungian analyst, responds to an interviewer in this way when asked about the merits of shadow work:
"What Kunkel called the 'real center' of the personality begins to emerge, and gradually the ego is re-oriented to a closer relationship without real center. Then a person is much less likely to become affiliated with genuine evil, because the integration of the shadow is always concurrent with the dissolution of the false persona. One becomes much more realistic about oneself; seeing the truth about one's own nature always has very salutary effects. Honesty is the great defense against genuine evil. When we stop lying to ourselves about ourselves, that's the greatest protection we can have against evil."
Edward Whitmont, in the same collection of writings on the shadow, says this: "It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality."
"This is the place in which, it seems to me, most white Americans find themselves. They are dimly, or vividly, aware that the history they have fed themselves is mainly a lie, but they do not know how to release themselves from it, and they suffer enormously from the resulting personal incoherence. This incoherence is heard nowhere more plainly than in those stammering, terrified dialogues white Americans sometimes entertain with that black conscience, the black man in America.
The nature of this stammering can be reduced to a plea: Do not blame me. I was not there. I did not do it. My history has nothing to do with Europe or the slave trade. Anyway, it was your chiefs who sold you to me. I was not present on the middle passage. I am not responsible for the textile mills of Manchester, or the cotton fields of Mississippi. Besides, consider how the English, too, suffered in those mills and in those awful cities! I, also, despise the governors of Southern states and the sheriffs of Southern counties; and I also want your child to have a decent education and rise as high as his capabilities will permit. I have nothing against you, nothing! What have you got against me? What do you want?
But, on the same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of his heart always, he, the white man, remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.
On that same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of the black man’s heart always, he finds himself facing the terrible roster of the lost: the dead, black junkie; the defeated, black father; the unutterably weary, black mother; the unutterably ruined black girl. And one begins to suspect an awful thing: that people believe that they deserve their history ….
And if black people fall into this trap, the trap of believing that they deserve their fate, white people fall into the yet more stunning and intricate trap of believing that they deserve their fate, and their comparative safety; and that black people, therefore, need only do as white people have done to rise to where white people now are." --James Baldwin, "White Man's Guilt," Ebony. August, 1965.
The nature of this stammering can be reduced to a plea: Do not blame me. I was not there. I did not do it. My history has nothing to do with Europe or the slave trade. Anyway, it was your chiefs who sold you to me. I was not present on the middle passage. I am not responsible for the textile mills of Manchester, or the cotton fields of Mississippi. Besides, consider how the English, too, suffered in those mills and in those awful cities! I, also, despise the governors of Southern states and the sheriffs of Southern counties; and I also want your child to have a decent education and rise as high as his capabilities will permit. I have nothing against you, nothing! What have you got against me? What do you want?
But, on the same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of his heart always, he, the white man, remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.
On that same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of the black man’s heart always, he finds himself facing the terrible roster of the lost: the dead, black junkie; the defeated, black father; the unutterably weary, black mother; the unutterably ruined black girl. And one begins to suspect an awful thing: that people believe that they deserve their history ….
And if black people fall into this trap, the trap of believing that they deserve their fate, white people fall into the yet more stunning and intricate trap of believing that they deserve their fate, and their comparative safety; and that black people, therefore, need only do as white people have done to rise to where white people now are." --James Baldwin, "White Man's Guilt," Ebony. August, 1965.
References
Abrams, J., & Zweig, C. (1991). Meeting the shadow: The hidden power of the dark side of human nature. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher.
Baldwin, J. (1965, August). White Man's Guilt. Ebony.
Chances Dances. (2007). James Baldwin [digital image] Retrieved from http://www.chancesdances.org/summoning-a-new-queer-reality
Cohen, Alan. (2014, August 10). "Layers of the Neurotic Personality." The Gestalt Therapy Institute. Retrieved from http://gestalttherapyinstitute.org/layers-neurotic-personality/.
Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. (1976). The portable Jung. New York: Penguin Books.
Abrams, J., & Zweig, C. (1991). Meeting the shadow: The hidden power of the dark side of human nature. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher.
Baldwin, J. (1965, August). White Man's Guilt. Ebony.
Chances Dances. (2007). James Baldwin [digital image] Retrieved from http://www.chancesdances.org/summoning-a-new-queer-reality
Cohen, Alan. (2014, August 10). "Layers of the Neurotic Personality." The Gestalt Therapy Institute. Retrieved from http://gestalttherapyinstitute.org/layers-neurotic-personality/.
Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. (1976). The portable Jung. New York: Penguin Books.