By Niklas Ludwig, August 2, 2024
Are you a good person? Of course you are! Otherwise you would be in prison, or unemployed, or homeless, or perhaps you would be a politician. We all want to be like Job in the Bible, a generous, loving, law-abiding, moral person, who is perfect and upright and eschews evil.
But some people (not me of course!), have a dark Side, and are selfish, destructive, immoral people who have nasty thoughts about putting dog poop on your neighbor’s front steps, mounting twin 50 caliber machine guns on their cars and mowing down idiot drivers who slow down in the left lane on the way to work, and stealing the staplers of co-workers that make fun of them. These same people are lazy, stupid, and cowards besides. I don’t know anybody like this for sure, but I have my suspicions about many of you.
Your therapist no doubt has jacked up your prescriptions, and you should absolutely continue to take them, as well as get regular counseling. But I also think you might want to check out Carl Jung’s ideas on the Shadow, because yours is pitch black. Jung says that everyone has an unconscious shadow, and if they don’t acknowledge, understand and integrate their shadow side into their consciousness, their shadow will begin to project those negative characteristics the individual is hiding onto other people, and at times when you are anxious, under stress, or confused, your shadow might even take over your conscious ego. Just think of Beetlejuice – Hell, I’ll possess myself if I gotta’!
But the Shadow isn’t all bad, as it is not only those aspects of your personality you’d rather forget about, it is also the positive traits that you think you are not good enough for, or you think conflict with your cultural, religious, or community beliefs and standards. In many cases, the most creative and personally fulfilling aspects of your personality are hidden away in your shadow, and so making the effort to assimilate and integrate them into your consciousness can mean a stronger, confident, and meaningful life.
But it does take work, and it can be a bit scary – not that I would know anything about that! And Jung believed that this shadow work was an absolutely necessary first step in order to continue to become a fully conscious individual. Perhaps it is time that you stop avoiding your dark side.
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