Persona and Shadow :: European School of Coaching

Ego

I don’t think there is any need to explain to anyone what Ego is. This is the center of our conscious psyche, our unique “I”. This is a lone hero who is created to fight day and night for our individuality. To fight fears and neuroses, animal instincts, social pressure, the influence of the media, the attempts of others to suppress and change us.

The ego most often betrays its individuality in order to become a standard cog in the social system

Ego is like a lone character on the last level of a computer game, where monsters are inexorably moving in THOUSANDS. And not everyone can withstand this unequal battle. Or rather, almost no one. Most choose the simple and easy way - they change their individuality to a standard social role. Gold for glass.

Figuratively speaking, instead of fighting dragons, Ego pretends to be a ball, which these dragons will play as they please. It's calmer that way, isn't it? How everyone went to work, then how everyone watched TV series, how everyone played “Mafia” on the weekend, how everyone went to Antalya in the summer. So life has passed, you can calmly lie down in the coffin.

In other words, the Ego most often BETRAYS its individuality in order to become a standard cog in the social system. The proud Hero born by the gods turns into a fussy six, and this six has a name - “Persona”.

Association of Depth Psychology Teurung™Shadow Phenomenon. Case study

“The unconscious is a wonderful universe made up of invisible energies, forces, forms of intelligence, even individuals that live within us.” ~ Robert Johnson

Article Shadow Phenomenon. Theoretical research

The shadow is an internal figure with a bright and dynamic diversity, conveying not just intense desires, but also the fullness of their diversity. We can say that each person, under the influence of the Shadow Archetype, simultaneously has many desires, which often contradict each other.

Therefore, one of the tasks and positive results of Dialogue with the Shadow is to calm the Shadow - by realizing the most pressing needs in the existing competition of desires that manifests itself on the threshold of consciousness.

“It is curious that people struggle with the positive aspects of their Shadow much more than with the dark ones,” writes Robert Johnson. “The feeling of inner nobility is much more shocking than the awareness of one’s worthlessness. Of course, a person has both, but he cannot reveal both of these qualities in himself at the same time.” [1]

And in fact, not only the so-called antisocial attractions become shadow, but also the positive traits of the human personality, since they are unclaimed or go beyond the established norm.

Having determined the state of shadow drives at a given period of a person’s life with one or another archetypal scenario, opportunities arise for their constructive implementation - finding a compromise between shadow desires, the needs of the authentic Self and the social reality in which the person finds himself.

Constructive interaction with the Shadow does not imply the destruction of existing social status, turning into an outcast and sociopath.

On the contrary, the archetypal resource of the Shadow allows one to increase social status, enhance significance, take authority to new levels, present to others original resources that a person did not have before - all these are possibilities for the constructive implementation of the Shadow.

This requires active and conscious participation of consciousness in this process. A dialogue with the Shadow is required. And for such a dialogue to be possible, it is necessary to know the interlocutor by sight, to see the appearance of the Shadow, to determine its desires that are relevant for a given period of life.

Projective diagnostic methods allow amplification to be carried out in accordance with mythological and poetic plots. And when we manage to see a familiar archetypal plot in the projective material provided by the client, here we become closer to the constructive implementation of his shadow drives, freeing up the creative resource of the Shadow.

As new methods for studying the Shadow, we use a type of art therapeutic diagnostic methods such as cinematherapy. The methodological basis of cinematherapy as a diagnosis is Jung’s method of transcendental function, which activates the process of spontaneous imagination.

In his works devoted to this phenomenon, Jung described in detail that spontaneous imagination is a process of imagining archetypes. Being initiated according to the method of the transcendental function, the process of spontaneous imagination becomes more conscious and visual.

Using certain stimuli that immerse the analysand in a state of transcendental function, we can assume that the process of imagining a particular archetype has been initiated. In this regard, cinematic stimuli are particularly effective due to their syncretism and emotional richness. Both the history of cinema and its modernity demonstrate to us that the theme of the Shadow is one of the leading ones.

The first film about Fantômas was made in 1913, Frankenstein in 1910, and the vampire film Dracula in 1921. Nowadays, the theme of the Shadow is experiencing a permanent renaissance in cinema. There are a number of works that are generally recognized as classics of “shadow” cinema. For example, one of these classic works is the film “Basic Instinct”, the main character of which personifies one of the most prominent shadow figures - the sociopathic one.

By amplifying materials from projective diagnostics of participants in therapeutic and developmental programs conducted by the Teurung Association of Depth Psychology, we can identify the most common archetypal scenarios and associated behavior patterns. Next, we will consider the main ones.

Archetype of Astarte

Archetypal figure of Astarte

– the personification of bright, frank, unbridled female dominance, realized through passionate, powerful erotic impulses. The image of Astarte served as the basis for the cults of the Greek goddess Artemis and the Roman Vesta.

Under the influence of such a shadow figure, indestructible confidence, ferocity, violence, and the desire for power are manifested. The sacred animals of Astarte were lions and leopards, and the bloody cult of the service of this goddess involved human sacrifices. The Phoenician goddess is the embodiment of female aggressiveness, the rage of a ferocious predator, but at the same time, aggression is not evil - rather, it is an excess of vital energy, a desire for influence in the male world.

Astarte in ancient times was the patroness of crazy love, which fell upon a man by a woman and drove him crazy, as a desire to exercise power over a man in order to obtain ecstatic, blinding pleasure.

The goddess, personifying female dominance over men, manifests itself in the woman’s psyche as the need for dominant power based on sex and aggression with violent, vivid emotions that are not subject to restrictions.

In this archetypal Shadow scenario, a man in the grip of love madness must fall victim to a fatal love in which the woman is the sexual predator.

Archetype Skadi

- a deity from Old Norse beliefs. Skadi, the goddess of winter, was the daughter of a giant who came to avenge her father's death. The figure is very similar to the ancient Greek goddess Artemis, classified as an Amazon, but the characteristic feature of the archetypal Skadi scenario is a decisive, tough and uncompromising fight for the truth. She, like a lone wolf, is the personification of fearlessness and efficiency, composure and ferocity, and always follows her principles.

This archetypal figure gives a person both the desire and the opportunity to challenge both the social group and the entire society - to speak out against injustice. Such a shadow figure is characterized not by aggression, but by the search for truth; under its influence, it becomes very important for a person to form his own worldview, present honor and dignity, designate the categories of good and evil, sublime and base in practical meaning. The sharp, frank, straightforward nature of Skadi, a skier - the mistress of a mountainous northern country - is not a theorist of justice, but a practitioner.

She asserts justice wherever she is and sees violations, and without being restrained, she becomes merciless in her pursuit of perfectionism and the perfection of truth, leading to the fact that people next to her must be on the same level of morality, ethics, dignity and courage, otherwise she treats them like criminals. It especially hits men who show weakness.

Archetype of Artemis

Archetypal figure of Artemis

– goddess of the hunt and the Moon: an Amazon woman who can appear in various guises from a warrior to a seductress witch. Jean Shinoda Bolen, in his description of this archetype, emphasizes that Artemis personifies the independence of the female spirit.

As an archetype, it gives a woman the right to pursue her own goals in her own chosen field and the ability to focus completely on the subject that is important to her and not pay attention to the needs of others. A significant part of her soul does not belong to any man.[2]

Artemis (Diana to the Romans) is the goddess of the hunt and the Moon. The beloved daughter of Zeus and Leto, slender Artemis happily wanders through wild forests, meadows and hills, surrounded by nymphs and hunting dogs devoted to her. She is a sharp shooter, dressed in a short tunic, armed with a silver bow, and has a quiver of arrows over her shoulders. Artemis was also depicted as a moon goddess, holding torches and wearing a halo of stars and the moon around her head. [2]

We can assume the manifestation of an aspect of eroticism associated with provocativeness. Under the influence of the Artemis archetype, a woman challenges men, testing their strength and, at the same time, explores herself, starting a mutual experiment of testing feelings. As a result of such provocations and seductive spells that darken consciousness, Artemis helps herself to understand her own experiences.

Involving a man in competition, trying to weaken his will, insulting and provoking him in shadow manifestations, she performs a certain experiment - how strong the man will be, how generous he will be and how far he will allow her to go in his competition. But the result of such experiments is unpredictable, because the woman has no idea about the outcome, because she is inspired by the very process of competing with a man and, if he turns out to be a worthy opponent, for her this is the best reward, the best result of her efforts.

Athena Archetype

Among the archetypal scenarios of Amazon women, only with pronounced prudence and balance, Athena can be distinguished.
In ancient Greek mythology, Athena was the faithful daughter of her father Zeus, and in her unyielding will and clarity of mind she often even surpassed the supreme god Olympus. In myths we find many examples of how Zeus lost heart and even fell into fear, and his daughter, bright-eyed Athena, as the Greeks called her for her blue eyes, inspired her father with courage, as a result of which Zeus was inspired by Athena’s fearlessness and defeated his enemies .

As an internal figure, Athena is, first of all, the desire for unconditional success, but based on her own intellectual and volitional efforts. Among the ancient Greeks, Athena was the patroness of a predicted victory - conscious and reasonable.

Under the influence of the shadow figure of Athena, a woman has a desire to inspire and influence the man who is significant to her, just as the goddess herself influenced her father Zeus and other mortal heroes (Perseus, Jason, Achilles, Odysseus, Orestes), speaking on the side of patriarchy and inspiring them not feats they could not even imagine. Of all the qualities and mental processes, such a shadow figure as Athena primarily influences the will of a person, making it practically invulnerable.

Morgana Fairy Archetype

Often in the Shadow we see such an archetypal figure as Fairy Morgana

- a sorceress, a character in English legends of the Arthurian cycle (a natural phenomenon was named in her honor - Fata Morgana, a rare and complex natural optical illusion). Fairy Morgana became an integral part of the legends of King Arthur. However, Morgan was first mentioned in about 1150 in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth “The Life of Merlin” (Vita Merlini). It should be noted that this was a rather short but meaningful mention: Morgana is the most powerful and beautiful sorceress of her nine sisters living on the magical island of Avalon. Arthur was entrusted to her care when he was wounded.

The Morgana archetype is reminiscent of Artemis, as a sorceress and witch-love spellcaster, she knows how to create illusions and, under the influence of this figure, a woman can draw a man into a world of bizarre fantasies. However, unlike Artemis, who is interested in the process itself, Fairy Morgana is interested in the goal - to charm a man, captivate him, tie him to herself.

And not just any man, but the best of them. In Celtic legends, Morgana enchants the most valiant knight - a man who acts as a model of honor and duty, as a result of his service becomes love for this woman. He sees her as his muse, for whose sake he performs feats and directs all the powers of his mind, courage and will in order to extol and please his beautiful inspiration.

The image of the witch embodies the intelligence and strength of a woman so strikingly different from conscious rational thinking and the degree of female ambition. Her mind and strength are much more connected with nature, concentrated on the inner life, which arises from an unconscious source and is not subject to the laws of logic and cause-and-effect relationships. The witch finds herself outside the community and brings into it new combinations of well-known ingredients. It challenges, frightens and inspires. Her mind, if in demand, becomes wisdom. [3]

Fairy Morgana is a shadow figure who encourages a woman to be placed on a pedestal, becoming the object of true passionate service from a worthy man.

Hetera archetype

We also often encounter the archetypal Hetera

at the bright pole. Under the influence of such a shadow figure, a woman is characterized by a desire for bright, creative, sensual pleasures - eroticism, primarily in its psychological aspect. Feelings are important for Hetaera, because she is the mistress of sensual pleasures, a woman improviser who creates in a passionate and tender fusion with a man.

In this archetypal scenario, a woman feels valuable, desired, sweet, enjoys herself, and she longs to merge in this rapture with a man, share it with him, enjoying both herself and her partner. In this passionate and sincere love merger, she strives to achieve an ecstatic state when her individuality changes and new facets of her feminine Soul open up. That is, this is not just love pleasure, it is sensual creativity, revealing something new, hitherto unknown in a woman.

Also often, in repressed shadow desires, the archetypal scenario
of Getera
, but already at the dark pole. In the Shadow, this figure manifests itself as the desires of a fatal seductress who arouses passion in a man, draws him into herself, makes him throw everything at her feet, and then breaks his heart and leaves him devastated, despairing, hopeless - in the midst of the ruined life that he sacrificed for her.

Without exaggeration, this figure is very dangerous, because it awakens sophisticated, sadistic cruelty in a woman. It is quite difficult to enter into constructive interaction with such a shadow figure, since most often the archetypal scenario is activated through the desire for revenge. Falling under the influence of the shadow figure of Hetera is dangerous because it essentially starts the process of internal devastation - destruction without any potential for creation. After all, revenge strives to ensure that the object of its interest ceases to exist altogether.

Therefore, when interacting with a Shadow of such content, it is necessary to analyze who wants revenge, what kind of mental pain and suffering pushes a woman to realize the potential of the dark Hetaera to ruin a man’s life.

Most often this is associated with a traumatic experience, and when we manage to determine the true cause, the use of the potential of such a personal Shadow takes on a reasonable character, for example, a form of retribution - constructive aggression aimed at self-defense or compensation for the damage caused, admonishing a person in illusion.

Therefore, the most important thing here is to work with the true desires of revenge, which must be realized and changed. And what kind of impulse depends on the specific situation that caused the activation of the vengeful dark Getera.

Among the shadow figures associated with the Hetera archetype, one can distinguish the aristocratic courtesan.

Under the influence of this figure, a woman becomes not just sensual and sexy, she strives for refined, aristocratic pleasures, involving a man in sophistication. She is not just an erotic Muse, her influence is elevating, ennobling, awakening in a man high aspirations, nobility, and self-esteem. The hetaera-courtesan manages to combine passionate eroticism with sublimity and service. If a woman manages to interact constructively with this shadow figure, she is able to turn a man into a noble nobleman who, for the sake of the object of his adoration, will decide on outstanding extraordinary actions.

Electra Archetype

Also noteworthy are the figures of Electra

– this archetypal scenario relates to the psychotype of Amazon women. According to myth, Electra was a princess, her father's favorite - a warrior woman, determined, ambitious. At the light pole, she is a father’s daughter, who can do anything, but at the dark pole, she is attracted to power. A characteristic feature in such an archetypal scenario is a highly developed will, which allows you to use various kinds of manipulation to achieve your goals.

Hera Archetype

Often in the Shadow there is a manifestation of the archetype of the ancient Greek goddess Hera.

Majestic, regal, beautiful Hera, known to the Romans as Juno, was the goddess of marriage. She is the wife of Zeus the Thunderer (Jupiter among the Romans), the supreme god of Olympus, who ruled heaven and earth. Her name is believed to mean "Great Lady", the feminine form of the Greek word hero. Greek poets, when addressing her, called her “hair-eyed” - a compliment to her huge and beautiful eyes. Her symbols were the cow, the Milky Way, the lily and the peacock with its iridescent, bushy tail, whose eyes symbolized Hera's vigilance. The sacred cow has been an image that has long been associated with the Great Mother - the nurse who provides food for everyone [2].

Such a figure is the personification of the will to power, a model of restraint and dignity. This is an arrogant queen who conveys a sense of superiority, importance, and dominance. As a shadow figure, Hera awakens women to challenge those around them, primarily from a position of arrogance, aristocracy and perfectionism. The influence of the Hera archetype gives a woman a feeling of inner perfection, sophistication and impeccability, erecting an insurmountable boundary with everyone around her, less worthy in her opinion, obliged to serve her.

In such a state, it is difficult for a woman to be imperfect, demonstrating her superiority, she encourages people around her to strive for sophisticated elite perceptions and manifestations when they are next to her. She does not compete with other women because she believes that she has won the rivalry immediately and forever. At the dark pole, Hera personifies icy arrogance, contempt, which makes even the most arrogant and self-confident person feel like an absurd commoner.

The constructive realization of the potential of the shadow figure of Hera may consist in exposing base aspirations when a person hides his true intentions, sometimes without even realizing it. And in this case, the opponent’s vulnerability is exposed to elitism and aristocracy, ironic humor, bright superiority, transmitted by the Hera archetype, thanks to which the ability to awaken nobility, honor and dignity, especially in men, appears.

Pluto Archetype

In men, quite often we encounter the manifestation of the archetypal figure of Pluto,

and this is the Shadow of Zeus. Under the influence of the Pluto archetype, a man manifests the will to power, dominance, self-affirmation, the presentation of authority and the subordination of the entire surrounding space to his will. But if Zeus does this clearly and openly through intelligence, rules and organization, then Pluto realizes his power secretly through personal informal influence, manipulation, suggestion using various methods of suggestion. This is a mysterious figure that evokes fear and curiosity.

Pluto very effectively and quietly knows how to involve people in his interests, evokes in those around him a feeling of mysteriously enthusiastic adoration, next to him people feel like frightened, but at the same time, curious children to whom he can lift the veil of some secret and for this they are ready do a lot for him. Most often, under the influence of such a shadow figure, a person does not have to resort to any pressure or intimidation - after all, he is very good at sparking curiosity in people and in this way involving them in the realization of his goals.

Archetype of Attis

No less often, a shadow figure appears in a man’s inner world, correlated with the Attis archetype

- according to myth, a beautiful young man on whom the goddess Cybele brought down her passion. Attis is the Greek god of Phrygia (a region in Asia Minor), associated with the great Roman earth goddess Cybele, the giver of fertility. According to one ancient Greek myth, Attis, the son of a certain Phrygian, incapable of childbearing, establishes festivals in honor of the goddess Cybele - orgies, but he is killed by a boar sent by Zeus. According to another version, Attis is a beautiful young man whom Cybele herself fell in love with, and when he was about to marry the king’s daughter, Cybele, out of jealousy, sent madness upon him, and he died, and the repentant goddess asked Zeus to make her lover’s body forever young and incorruptible.

Marie Louise von Franz writes that Attis, the beloved son of the Great Mother, who embodies the eternal, ageless divine youth, represents the pattern of the pereg aeternus

, the eternally beautiful young god who is never sad, he is not familiar with human limitations, withering and death.

Many young people who have a pronounced mother complex, like this god, at some point realize that life itself does not allow them to remain forever young; youth must end. Their future is seen as brilliant, full of abundance, fame and wealth; but we know that nothing ever lasts forever - everything will come to an end due to the influence of the dark side of life. And therefore this young god always dies early, nailed to a tree, which again becomes his mother. The maternal principle, which previously gave birth to him, takes him back to itself in such a terrible way, and there he is overtaken by withering and death. [5]

Most often, the shadow influence of such an archetypal scenario in the male psyche is characterized by the desire to become a delightful, desired, adored victim of female passion, plunging into the full depth and unbridledness of her erotic aspirations.

Ares Archetype

Among the internal figures repressed in men, we also encounter the manifestation of the archetypal image of the ancient Greek god of war, Ares.

As a male shadow figure, he is close to the female figure of the Dark Hetaera, radiating a frantic thirst for revenge, destruction, and intoxication with blood. If the archetypal scenario of Ares awakens, a man wants war and aggression, because through such manifestations he feels the fullness of life. This fierce figure deprives a man of sensitivity to any rules, reasonable arguments, he begins to act under the influence of his mood, without being included in any beliefs.

At the same time, Ares is very sensitive to female influences; according to myth, the only woman who knew how to influence Ares and used it willingly was Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And the woman, under the influence of the Light Hetera archetype, has a bewitching influence on the man Ares; next to her, this ferocious predator turns into a passionate, loving lover. In addition, in its constructive manifestation, the figure of Ares in the Shadow contains great potential to fight for the truth, he is capable of becoming a noble robber, a knight without fear and reproach, who fights with opponents and he does not care how many there are and how strong they are, because he protects his ideals of justice and he does not care about obstacles.

————————–

As we see, from the drives repressed into the Shadow, which very often manifest themselves as a result of therapeutic work on the programs of the Teurung Association of Depth Psychology

, we note those that are associated with libido - the manifestation of sensual pleasures and aggression. And this is not surprising, because in Freud’s time the main taboo was physicality, but now repression has shifted to soulfulness and trusting experiences.

Shadow desires “knock” from the unconscious more often than others, especially those that are among the most forbidden. Although the sexual revolution occurred a long time ago, erotic shadow desires remain limited to this day. Sensuality, especially confidential, based on deeply personal, authentic experiences of erotic partners in our time, focused on physicality, is clearly taboo, and romance and sensitivity are perceived as a source of vulnerability.

Therefore, an important task is to identify which aspects of sensory trusting relationships are repressed into the Shadow, to determine the possibilities of accepting them and implementing them in relationships without the danger of their destruction. Expanding the range of sexual desires through interaction with the Shadow gives a new impetus to relationships and opens up in a person a new energy of pleasure and life activity in general.

So, based on the research,
we can draw the following conclusions:
The shadow is the most dynamic resource of individuation.

The dynamism of the Shadow's influence is associated with the confrontation of the Super-Ego. This means that those life scenarios of individuation that are initiated by the Shadow inevitably involve expansion into the immediate social environment and transformation of the social-role structure of the individual.

The predominant intentions of the Shadow are libido and aggression. Under the influence of modern cultural models associated with publicity, consumer society and hedonism, sentimental-romantic, confidentially close libidinal attractions become shadowy. And shadow aggression is primarily countercultural in nature. In essence, it is precisely this kind of shadow aggression that Herbert Marcuse describes in his philosophical concept of the “great refusal”, set out in the work “One-Dimensional Man. Study of the ideology of a developed industrial society”[6].

The most important task of the analyst when working with a client is to find the most constructive forms of such influence of the Shadow, which would not lead to the destruction of social status and ostracism of the individual, but, on the contrary, to the formation of a position of self-sufficiency, leadership, and social constructivism. To do this, we rely on the understanding of the authenticity of the ego, which is a development of Jung’s idea of anima media natura -

“the soul of the connecting nature.”

“In our therapeutic and research work, we use the transcendental function method as the main method for diagnosing the defense mechanisms of the unconscious. Based on the work of the same name by C. G. Jung, we proceed from the idea expressed by him that the process of active imagination is “the most effective way of bringing to the surface that content of the unconscious, which is located immediately beyond the threshold of consciousness and, being subjected to activation, as a rule, spontaneously breaks into the conscious mind." Both C. G. Jung and all his followers draw attention to the fact that the contents of consciousness and the unconscious very rarely fit together. Antinomic positions of the unconscious do not pose a particular threat to the ego until they acquire an excess energy charge. This, in turn, is observed when the rationalistic orientation of consciousness becomes overly concentrated, and, consequently, preventing any manifestation of irrationality. If the confrontation between the tendencies of consciousness and the unconscious becomes antagonistic, then there is a threat of a breakthrough of the antinomic tendency of the unconscious into consciousness.

However, it is the combination of the tendencies of consciousness and the unconscious that leads to the formation of a transcendental function, which, by the way, is called that because it allows the transition from the unconscious to consciousness without losing the content of the first. C. G. Jung calls this method constructive or synthetic, and the result of this synthesis is the insight of the analysand. Theoretically, the transcendental function is the very transitional space of the psyche, which C. G. Jung called “anima media natura”. However, even for an untraumatized person, using this function independently is a task of extreme difficulty. For a traumatized person, this is generally impossible, since the protective mechanisms of the unconscious disintegrate the transitional space of the psyche.

The analyst thus acts as an external integrating force for the “anima media natura” of the analysand, i.e. performs a transcendental function. In this regard, C. G. Jung notes the particular importance of transference for the process of analysis, since it is with the help of transference that the analysand “delegates” the transcendental function to the analyst. It is logical that this can lead to a very strong attachment of the analysand to the analyst, which, of course, also has its negative sides.” [7]

Article Shadow Phenomenon. Theoretical research

Irina Kalinina

analytical psychologist, Jungian psychotherapy, practicing consultant in the field of depth psychology, head of the Kyiv branch of the Teurung Association of Depth Psychology

Robert Johnson.
How to master your shadow. Deep aspects of the dark side of the psyche. / Translation from English – M.: Institute of General Humanitarian Studies, 2014 – 96 p.
Jin Shinoda is sick.
Goddesses in every woman. The main archetypes in the lives of women / Jean Shinoda Bolen; [transl. from English G. Bakhtiyarova]. – M.: Svet, 2018. – 384 p. pp. 58-102.
Ann and Barry Ulanov.
Witch and Clown. Two archetypes of human sexuality. Part 1 – M.; “Castalia”, 2020. – 384 p.
Carter Nancy, The Electra Complex in the Psychology of Women:
trans. from English/Ed. and with afterword. L.A. Khegaya. – M.: LENAND, 2018 – 160 p. S. 09
Franz M.-L.von F Phenomena of Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales
/ Trans. from English V. Mershavki. – M.: Nezavisimaya, 2010. – 360 p.
One dimensional person.
M.: “Refl-book”, 1994. - 368 p.
Sagaidak A.N.
Anima media natura as a Jungian approach to the psyche / A.N. Sagaidak // History of Russian psychology in persons. Digest. – 2020. – No. 6. - With. 153-162

The Shadow Phenomenon. Theoretical research

Did you like it? Share the link on social networks:

A person

A persona is a mask we put on to interact with society; a kind of COMPROMISE between the Ego and society. But we must clearly understand that this compromise is unequal. We simply accept the terms of the game that society dictates to us. It bends us over, and we pretend that this is amazing, what a good deal and this is exactly what we have wanted all our lives.

A person is a subpersonality that has a set of characteristics that are encouraged by society. This set includes both individual qualities (“pretend that everything is fine in any situation”, “strive for the same things as everyone else”, etc.), and entire ready-made SETS of qualities - in particular, profession and role in the family.

The problem is that in the vast majority of cases, the Persona inexorably and imperceptibly ABSORBES our Ego, and it begins to seem to us that the Persona is our true “I”. We cowardly close our eyes to the fact that in such a fake “I” there is not a drop of individuality.

Figuratively speaking, the Ego is a Man swallowed by the Whale-Persona and asleep in his warm womb. This sleep dulls and immobilizes the Ego, and it slowly dies - instead of cutting open the belly of the fat monster and getting out into the LIGHT.

Try asking yourself: “Who am I apart from my social and family role? What is my personality? Or am I just a set of standard behavior patterns that society has imposed on me?

These are very, VERY difficult questions from which people run away like cockroaches from dichlorvos.

But it is with these questions and, accordingly, with the separation of the Ego from the Persona that every person’s path to himself begins.

Carl Jung's contribution to the development of ideas about the archetypes of the human psyche

Carl Jung is one of the founders of the psychoanalytic movement.
Together with Sigmund Freud, he researched depth psychology and unconscious manifestations of the human psyche. In the course of his scientific activity, he developed Freud's approach to the human psyche as a multi-level and multi-polar energetically contradictory system.

Subsequently, Carl Jung began individual research and formulated his own theory about the features of analytical human psychology, which had a great influence on both psychology and psychiatry and many related sciences.

According to the scientist, the personality structure includes three components: Ego, Personal unconscious and Collective unconscious. It was in the collective unconscious that Jung identified substructures that he called archetypes of human personality.

Shadow

In your infancy, you showed yourself unclouded and spontaneous, without bothering with internal censorship: you tried with equal pleasure to hug your mother and hit her on the nose with your pink baby fist, politely asked to go to the toilet and silently shit in the middle of the room, boldly took toys from other children and shared theirs with them, dreamed of being both a minister and a janitor.

The shadow is the opposite, dark side of you, it concentrates in itself everything that you reject and consider unacceptable

For some of these actions you received candy from your environment (first your parents, and then the entire society), and for some you received pendals and slaps on the head. As a result, the patterns of “correct” actions encouraged by society remained in your arsenal, and from the “wrong” and “bad” ones, a certain image was formed in your personal unconscious, embodying animal instincts, violation of social norms and other repressed unacceptable behavior. This image is called the SHADOW. The shadow is the other, DARK side of you, it concentrates in itself everything that you reject and consider unacceptable.

Usually a person is irritated by the qualities of his Shadow in other people (especially his own gender). For example, if you are a girl and you are shaken by women who lie like they breathe, do not like to think about the problems of existence and revel in narcissism, you can be sure that your Shadow is just like them - deceitful, superficial and narcissistic. You PROJECT your repressed inner content onto an external object, which is why it causes such a sharply negative, one might say, AFFECTIVE reaction in you.

An important nuance is that by repressing unacceptable content, we often throw out the baby with the bathwater. That is, if, for example, a person has repressed into the Shadow such a quality as SELF-CONFIDENCE, then in his conscious life he AVOIDS self-confident behavior with all his might - even in cases where it is really necessary (for example, he considers it shameful and unacceptable to propose one’s candidacy for any - a trump vacancy, because “this is too self-confident, and self-confidence is a sign of boors, cattle and bastards”).

Even more sadly, our best talents and abilities are often forced into the Shadow. For example, as a child you were incredibly artistic, but your parents were horrified by this and convinced you that “only spoiled and bad children act”; Since then, you have believed that artists are perverts and parasites, and, accordingly, you have driven your talent tightly into the Shadow.

Therefore, the most important step on the path of self-improvement is to stop shying away from the Shadow, enter into a dialogue with it and slowly figure out which of its traits can be adopted, thus ENRICHING your personality. This is an even more difficult step than separating the Ego from the Persona, but just as necessary.

Features of the manifestation of the Shadow archetype according to Carl Jung

Carl Jung identified many archetypes, but the ones most often mentioned in his studies are:

A person,
Anima and Animus
Shadow,
Self.

Let's look at the Shadow archetype in more detail.

The Shadow archetype, identified by Carl Jung, in his opinion, is the center of the personal unconscious of the human personality, a focus for material repressed from consciousness. This archetype is a kind of reverse side of the “I”.

This archetype includes desires, memories, and experiences that a person has that are denied by a person due to their incompatibility with the image of the Person or that contradict the social standards and ideals existing in a given society.

The shadow represents the totality of all our immoral, violent, passionate and completely unacceptable desires and actions. However, it is worth noting that, just like the Persona, this archetype has two sides and the positive influence of the Shadow is that it acts as a source of human creative impulses and the experience of deep emotional states.

The Shadow archetype finds its expression in the shadow animal side of a person’s personality and includes socially unacceptable sexual and aggressive impulses of a person, immoral thoughts and passions present in him. At the same time, this archetype is able to act as a source of human vitality, a creative principle in his activities.

Carl Jung, in his description of this archetype, noted that in the functioning of this archetype, consciousness plays a decisive role, which is capable of directing the energy of the Shadow in the right direction and helping to ensure that a person, on the one hand, is able to control the harmful aspects of his personality, and on the other hand, has the opportunity to openly express his desires and impulses and enjoy a healthy and creative life.