'The Shadow Exercise.' Try It and Cringe!

According to Carl Jung, the shadow is that part of the personality one chooses not to see. Usually of a vulgar, shameful, or corrupt nature, the shadow is comprised of whatever one cannot uphold in one’s idea of oneself. Not being integrated or even acknowledged by conscious mind, the shadow sits and waits in the unconscious.

What Is the Shadow in Jungian Psychcology?

This is how to try The Shadow Exercise...

Think about all the people you know...and now the one person that really gets under your skin. Picture the one that annoys you most. Now. Write down or imagine a list of the things that cause the most offence...

Have you done it? Is your foot tapping in annoyance? Blood boiling? Face frowning? They really are ###holes!

That list is meant to represent your 'shadow.'

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/931c693c68d3.png[/atsimg]

All those awful traits and habits are somehow a submerged part of your own psychology...your character.

"Consider this," I tell them. "What you have written down is some hidden part of yourself - some part that you have suppressed or hidden. It is what Jung would call your SHADOW. Maybe it's a part of you that you fear, can't accept, or hate for some reason. Maybe it's a part of you that needs to be expressed or developed in some way. Maybe you even secretly wish you could be something like that person whom you hate."

Source

So what do you think about this exercise? I've gotta say I don't like it...it's too rhetorical. It's more than the disturbing suggestion that we share the worst qualities of these people. Still, it's made me consider the dark aspects of my 'shadow' and compare myself to them. Uncomfortable reading?

Sucks. But it's a place we all should go every 5 or 10 years or so.

Thnx,
sofi

I never thought I'd have a reason to post this video from one of my favorite bands, Tool.
Read the lyrics... 46 & 2 is based off of this concept. Interesting!

...interesting exercise...

...I do see some *truth* in portions of it, and do see some *truth* in the whole recognition/externalisation/transference upon others of pieces of ourselves we perhaps don't like...

...didn't find it uncomfortable to be honest, as I'd openly admit there are elements of myself I'd prefer not to have...have a decent level of self-awareness, of the good and the bad...

...absolutely on occasion I can be the worlds biggest a-hole, know it, generally try not to be and occasionally don't give a flying monkey how much of an a-hole I'm being...


...sometimes I'm finger-licking good...other times I'm a-wiping bad...kinda makes me human...








[edit on 12-2-2010 by alien]

reply to post by Kandinsky

It's more than the disturbing suggestion that we
share the worst qualities of these people.

If you want disturbing, there's an underlying idea here that observer and observed are a single phenomenon. That no perception can reach your awareness unless it is already a part of you. Like an antenna that can only receive singals within certain frequency ranges corresponding to its length, your mind is only able to be aware of experience that resonates with your being.

So...that woman who destroyed your life, the stranger who raped you and cut up your face, the psychopath who murdered the neighbors little girl...all of these "people/experiences" are phenomenon that exist within you as much as without. At some level of your consciousness you are the people who do these things. If you weren't, you would not be able to perceive these experiences.


[edit on 12-2-2010 by LordBucket]

reply to post by alien

...sometimes I'm finger-licking good...other times I'm a-wiping bad...kinda makes me human...

I share that sentiment...you are 'a-wiping bad.'

Just joking...yeah we can be great humans and then pretty poor excuses for anything.

What bugs me about this 'shadow exercise' is that it seems like an elaborate platitude. It's a generalisation and untestable assumption. An extreme example to illustrate the argument...what if the 'shadow guy' was a career criminal, mugger, pathological liar or sociopath? It only has credibility if the person we don't like has traits that fall within moderate standards. If it's limited to moderation...its flawed and merely an interesting exercise in self-knowledge.

Explanation: I incorporated my shadow years ago. Now I can play like Peter Pan with my Shadow! [capitalized to show it some respect! ]

Personal Disclosure: I'm well aware that I'm my own worst enemy. That is why I keep myself closer than my friends!

P.S. S&F and also a St*r for Lord Bucket!

One problem with Jung discussions is that the guy had a several decades long career. So, he would get ideas in one decade, and then only really develop them two decades later... and then change his mind in his last two or three years .

Jung met the Shadow under bad circumstances: working with patients before he looked closely at non-clinical populations. So, the test described in the OP is looking for people who have projected their Shadow onto other people, the ones they dislike.

That isn't very reliable in a general population, though. Not that projection doesn't happen in the general population, but that it isn't the only reason why healthy people might find somebody else to be creepy.

Plus, the Shadow turns out to be not such a bad guy or gal after all. Not necessarily, anyway. Early in his career, Jung was heavily influenced by Freud, and so maybe saw all unconscious contents as repressed, nasty, personal stuff. But Jung moved past that, especially after getting to know his own unconscious better, after splitting with Freud.

One thing about the Shadow that did hold up very well, IMO, is what's called shadow work, searchable. The OP exercise fits in with that - by all means, we should check whether our reaction to someone is based on projection! But the bigger goal, if Jung is right, is to integrate all the parts of the self into a Self, and that includes the Shadow, the parts we don't like so much.

Shadow work is a project, a life's work. I wouldn't count on "eight easy steps," as the article in the OP links to , except as a beginning.

Additional insight into goals and methods for that project comes up when searching individuation jung. Individuation may be the better term, too, since a lot of "Shadow work" goes beyond anything really limited to the Shadow archetype.

reply to post by Kandinsky


The 'shadow' could be seen as one's repressed self.
It usually has to do with ideas such as sovereignty, independence, creativity, desire to express one's 'self' as only he is designed to express, by design.

The Soul or Spirit, is the shadow.
Sometimes the spirit, the soul, wants to 'lash out' at what it witnesses day to day.
This is natural and Good for the world.
It should be 'encouraged' for the benefit of society as a whole as well as for the benefit it provides 'each' unique individual as per design.

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On a another note:

We appear to be in the same ATS 'module' of pre-established ATS user names/contributors when we sign in our user names. I'm clearly not in the 'public' sphere here anymore. This is obvious, and has been for quite some time now. I respect 'honesty' before 'anything' for it is the very substance of Brotherhood. You understand?


[edit on 16-2-2010 by Perseus Apex]