That guy 2

Shadow Self

The shadow is an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not correspond with the ego ideal, leading the ego to resist and project the shadow. In short, the shadow is the self's emotional blind spot, projected (as archetypes—or, metaphoral sense-image complexes, personified within the collective unconscious).

The shadow is the blind spot of the psyche. The repression of one's id prevents shadow integration. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung coalesce at Plato, wherein id rejects the nomos. Persona is contradistinct to shadow. The personal shadow is unconscious—id and biography—suppressed under the superego's ego-ideal. The shadow is projected onto one's social environment as cognitive distortions.

From one perspective, the shadow "is roughly equivalent to the whole of the Freudian unconscious;" and Carl Jung himself asserted that "the result of the Freudian method of elucidation is a minute elaboration of man's shadow side unexampled in any previous age". Contrary to a Freudian definition of shadow, however, the Jungian shadow can include everything outside the light of consciousness and may be positive or negative. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is perceived to be largely negative. There are, however, positive aspects that may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem, anxieties, and false beliefs). "Everyone carries a shadow," Dr. Jung wrote," and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be, in part, one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

Jung stated the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality. According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that, if these projections remain hidden, "the projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power". These projections insulate and delude individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.

The collective unconscious's projective identification of uncertainty—identifies with the mythological figure of the devil as the "fourth" aspect of the Pauline-Christian trinity. The ancient-Egyptian-devil Seth "represents overwhelming affects". The collective shadow is ancestral (i.e., in-group and out-group: dehumanization; e.g., hate crime).

Jung called all these figures ['Shadow self, Ego, Anima,' etc.] "the little people."- James Hillman

The shadow may appear in dreams and visions, in various forms. The shadow's appearance and role depend greatly on the living experience of the individual because much of the shadow develops in the individual's mind rather than simply being inherited in the collective unconscious. Nevertheless, some Jungians maintain that "the shadow contains, besides the personal shadow, the shadow of society...fed by the neglected and repressed collective values."

According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. "A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps...living below his own level." Hence, in terms of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, "it must be Jekyll, the conscious personality, who integrates the shadow... and not vice versa. Otherwise the conscious becomes the slave of the autonomous shadow."

Individuation inevitably raises that very possibility. As the process continues, and "the libido leaves the bright upper world...sinks back into its own depths...below, in the shadows of the unconscious." so too what comes to the forefront is "what was hidden under the mask of conventional adaptation: the shadow", with the result that "ego and shadow are no longer divided but are brought together in an—admittedly precarious—unity."

The effect of such "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective ... nigredo, tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia." Consequently, as Jung knew from personal experience: "In this time of descent — one, three, seven years, more or less — genuine courage and strength are required", with no certainty of emergence. Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while "no one should deny the danger of the descent... every descent is followed by an ascent",[ and assimilation of — rather than possession by — the shadow becomes a possibility.

Assimilation of the shadow

Enantiodromia—based on the concept of midlife crisis—is redirected psychic energy.

Shadow integration leads to a numinous experience; anchoring to the numinosum effect without reality testing can lead to archetypal possession.

"We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up."

Here the struggle is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not identification with it. "Non-identification demands considerable moral effort [which] prevents a descent into that darkness"; and though "the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious...understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious." This reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. "Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak, thereby providing a launch pad for further individuation. "The integration of the shadow, or the realization of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage in the analytic process... without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible." Conversely, "to the degree in which the shadow is recognized and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated," and becomes the center of the individuation quest.

Kaufman wrote that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity;" so that for some, it may be that "the dark side of his being, his sinister shadow...represents the true spirit of life as against the arid scholar." Nevertheless, Jungians warn that "acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life;" and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, "the later stages of shadow integration" will continue to take place—the grim "process of washing one's dirty linen in private," of embracing one's shadow.

"It is quite within the bounds of 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." - Dr. Carl
Jung

The best method in dealing with the darkness of other people is knowing your own darkness.

The development and size of one's shadow runs parallel to that of the ego.

How black and dense the shadow is has always something to do with how much trauma one has experienced through life.

How dark is your shadow?