The Archetype of the Shadow

[David Guyatt]

Extracts from:

Man and His Symbols
edited by Dr. Carl Jung

The Process of Individuation
By Marie-Louise von Franz

The Pattern of Psychic Growth

By observing a great many people, (at least 80,000 dreams) Jung found that not only were all dreams relevant . . . but , , , they seem to follow an arrangement or pattern. This process Jung called "the process of individuation". P. 159

These changes can be accelerated if the dreamer's conscious attitude is influenced by appropriate interpretation of the dreams and their symbolic content. P. 161

Gradually a wider and more mature personality emerges . . . and even visible to others . Psychic growth cannot be brought about by a conscious effort of will power, but happens involuntarily and naturally . . . fulfilling a definite pattern. P. 161

The organizing center . . . a sort of nuclear "atom" . . . Jung called the "Self" and described it as the totality of the whole psyche, in order to distinguish it from the "ego", which constitutes only a small part of the psyche. P. 162

Throughout the ages men have been intuitively aware of the existence of an inner center. Greeks . . .daimon . . . Egypt . . . Ba-soul . . . Romans . . . genius. P. 162

The Self can be defined as an inner guiding factor that is different from the conscious personality and that can be grasped only through the investigation of one's own dreams. P. 163

How far it develops depends on whether or not the ego is willing to listen to the messages of the Self. Such a person also becomes a more complete human being. P. 163

One could picture this in the following way: The seed of a mountain pine cone contains the whole future tree in a latent form; but each seen falls at a certain time onto a particular place, in which there are a number of special factors, such as the quality of the soil and the stones . . . its exposure to the sun and wind. Thus an individual pine slowly comes into existence . . . the realization of this uniqueness in the individual man is the goal of the process of individuation. P. 162

. . . the process of individuation is real only if the individual is aware of it and consciously makes a living connection with it. P. 164

The guiding hints or impulses come, not from the ego, but from the totality of the psyche: the Self. P. 167

It is, moreover, useless to cast furtive glances at the way someone else is developing, because each of us has a unique task of self-realization. P. 167

The First Approach of the Unconscious

. . . .the years of youth are characterized by a state of gradual awakening . . . slowly becomes aware of the world and of himself. Childhood is a period of great emotional intensity . . . p. 168
When a child reaches school age, the phase of building up the ego and of adapting to the outer world begins. This . . . brings a number of painful shocks. P. 168

. . . some children begin to feel very different from others . . . brings a certain sadness . . . part of the loneliness of many youngsters. P. 168

If the development of consciousness is disturbed in its normal unfolding, children frequently retire. . . . into an "inner fortress" p. 169

In this early phase . . . many children . . .earnestly seek for some meanings in life . . . there are others .. . who are still . . . carried along by dynamism of inherited and instinctive patterns. P. 169

The actual processes of individuation . . . the conscious coming-to-terms with one's own inner center or Self . . . generally begins with a wounding of the personality and the suffering that accompanies it. This initial "shock" amounts to a sort of "call", although it is not often recognized as such. P. 169

. . . the ego feels hampered . . . projects the obstruction onto something external . . . accuses God . . . economics . . . boss . . . marriage partner . . . p. 169

Or perhaps everything seems outwardly all right, but beneath the surface a person is suffering from a deadly boredom that makes everything seem meaningless and empty. P. 170

Many myths and fairy tales symbolically describe this initial stage of individuation by telling of a king who has fallen ill, or grown old. P. 170

Thus, it seems as if the initial encounter with the Self casts a dark shadow ahead of time . . . to catch the helplessly struggling ego in his snare. P. 170

. . . in the initial crisis in the life of an individual . . . one is seeking something that is impossible to find or about which nothing is known. P. 170

In such moments all well-mean, sensible advice is completely useless . . . none of that helps, or at best only rarely. P. 170

There is only one thing that seems to work . . . to turn directly toward the approaching darkness without prejudice and totally naively . . . find out what its secret aim is and what it wants from you. P. 170

Sometimes it first offers a series of painful realizations of what is wrong with oneself and one's own conscious attitudes. Then one must begin the process by swallowing all sorts of bitter truths. P. 171

The Realization of the Shadow

. . . one becomes acquainted with aspects of one's own personality that for various reasons one has preferred not to look at too closely. P. 174
"realization of the shadow" . . . used because it actually often appears in dreams in a personified form. P. 174

The shadow is not the whole . . . it represents unknown or little-known attributes of the ego. P. 174

When an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in other people . . . such as egotism, mental laziness, sloppiness, unreal fantasies, schemes, plots, carelessness, cowardice, inordinate love of money and possessions . . . in short, all the little sins about which he might previously have told himself: "that doesn't matter". P. 174

If you feel an overwhelming rage coming up in you when a friend reproaches you about a fault, you can be fairly sure . . . you will find a part of your shadow, of which you are unconscious. P. 174

. . . the work of self-education begins . . . a work, we might say, that is the psychological equivalent of the labors of Hercules. P. 174

. . . a task so enormous that the ordinary mortal would be overcome by discouragement at the mere thought of it. P. 174

. . . shadow does not consist only of omissions. . . just as often in an impulsive or inadvertent act. . . the shadow is exposed to collective infections . . . when a man is alone . . . he feels all right, but as soon as "the others" do dark . . . things, he begins to fear that if he doesn't join in he will be considered a fool. P. 175

. . . he gives way to impulses that do not belong to him at all. P. 175

If people observe their own unconscious tendencies in other people, this is called "projection". Projections of all kinds obscure our view of our fellow men, spoiling its objectivity, and . .. all possibility of genuine human relations. P. 181

Whether our shadow becomes our friend or enemy depends largely upon ourselves. The shadow becomes hostile only when he is ignored or misunderstood. P. 182

Sometimes . . . an individual feels impelled to live out the worse side of his nature and to repress his better side. P. 182

So, whatever form it takes, the function of the shadow is to represent the opposite side of the ego and to embody just those qualities that one dislikes most in other people. P. 182

There is such a passionate drive within the shadow that reason may not prevail against it. A bitter experience coming from outside may occasionally help; a brick, so to speak, has to drop on one's head to put a stop to shadow drives and impulses. At times a heroic decision may serve to halt them, but such a superhuman effort is usually possible only if the Great Man within (the Self) helps the individual to carry it through. P. 182

The discovery of the unconscious is one of the most far-reaching discoveries of recent times. But the fact that recognition of its unconscious reality involves honest self-examination and reorganization of one's life causes many people to continue to behave as if nothing at all has happened. P. 185

It takes a lot of courage to . . . tackle the problems it raises. Most people are too indolent to think deeply about even those moral aspects of their behavior of which they are conscious; they are certainly too lazy to consider how the unconscious affects them. P. 185