14-02-2010, 10:37 AM
I've always seen them a lightening rods, there to earth public discontent by the small minority who are smart enough not to fall for the two party system of government. Certainly this is the case in the UK where past leaders of the LibDems are so Establishment types that it's embarrassing - and I don't just mean former spook Paddy Ashdown.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14