Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Mechanics of Your Dark Side

in every story there is a hero and a villain in your story you're both all the bright aspects and all the dark aspects of yourself orchestrate the melody of your song a song that you need to hear first before anyone else but in order to hear it you have to learn to listen to listen not only to what you want but also to what you're afraid of your fears and your darkness aren't detached from you do not extrude them face them analyze them internalize them the shadow is always there and it will always be but

the shadow can look big or it can look small depending on the angle from which the light caresses you what is the size of your shadow carl gustav jung was one of the most important psychologists of the previous century he's also one of my biggest influencers since he's one of the few that have attempted to bridge the notions of psychology and spirituality in an effort to discover ways to transcend the human condition junk has traveled a lot to india and immersed himself in different spiritual practices his work was constantly evolving and it was this evolution

that produced comprehensive analysis of concepts like the ego the shadow the archetypes and the anima and animus especially the shadow has always been an intriguing topic among people and with regards to it jung has stated 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 the use of the word shadow wasn't chosen unintentionally jung

was always good at portraying complex ideas in an assimilable visual manner he used mental imagery in order to create anchors with concepts already familiar to human cognition the shadow is dark and elusive it is impossible to catch its size can alter depending on your position in space and is ubiquitous whenever light is present there ago one can form a somewhat basic understanding of the concept without the need to delve into arcane terms another crucial thing to ponder is that the shadow itself due to the darkness that it forms and due to the distance that it

creates from the physical body of a person becomes something not so many people are eager to confront and this is one of the major ideas associated with the union shadow although we usually see the shadow as an integral part of our existence most of us are willfully blind to this existence our dark side is concealed or camouflaged in a painful attempt to protect an image that fits the narrative that we decide to espouse through social conditioning we come to constructive assad that can keep the substrate of our constructed identity stable so that we can keep

feeling safe safety however is ill-defined in that space we inhabit how can one feel safe when there is so much unknown territory out there that can at any given point in time convolves the foundations of our fragile constitution a person is as free as their mind allows and if the mind creates barriers between the reality of the person and the reality of the rest of the world delusion and neurosis could take over when you see people operate in a state of enforced ignorance that attempts to preserve a certain status quo then the shadow can only

grow bigger enforced ignorance entitles the shadow to take over since the individual is incapable of controlling it because he or she is not even aware of its existence we can't control what we don't understand every aspect of one's unconscious identity that cannot metamorphose into conscious judgment will perpetually impede one's progress for it's creating a fantastic world that cannot synchronize with the frequencies of the real world in such a landscape the real world or at least whatever we can understand of it becomes an egotistical battleground that leads to collision and madness that is not how our

perception should meet the world should be a forum for dialogue and constant experimentation where we strive to define the moral imperatives that could alleviate our suffering everything beyond that should be viewed with skepticism if that seems poignant to some people that is clearly because the shadow element hasn't been dealt with effectively this includes animalistic needs primitive instincts sexual desires traumatic experiences and also positive aspects of one's character that may also remain hidden in one's shadow regardless of the idiosyncratic nature of one's shadow the process of assimilation has always been universal and it is represented by

the following sequence evidently a simulation can't occur if the stages of encounter and merger don't take place first but certainly a heroic act for the angst and tale in the process is immense there's nothing scarier than facing the deepest realms of our self but there is also nothing more rewarding than that assimilation is a lengthy process that demands mainly psychotherapy but also hours of introspection and constant re-evaluation and recalibration of personal behaviors and beliefs our cerebral makeup is quite plastic but its plasticity is predicated upon our ability to showcase discipline and tenacity we can't just

expect a divine force to rescue us from our suffering with our only chance for redemption and catharsis the shadow has a challenging nature therefore the process of assimilation requires one to ask oneself some challenging questions [Music] most of you have heard of the story of dr jekyll and mr hyde the infamous phrase is inspired by the book strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde written by the scottish author robert luis stevenson in 1886 in it he describes the life of a man who transforms between two pers sony dr henry jekyll and mr edward hide

the story was so powerful and it resonated with so many people that it entered the vernacular and whenever we encountered characters with an unpredictably dual nature we almost immediately recall the story of dr jekyll and mr hyde most of us can cite events from our lives where our actions and our intent didn't really align we behaved as if we were different people that's a result of a plethora of factors that can affect our behavior and can result in lack of congruency in what we think feel and do social conditioning latent desires mental fatigue and many

more reasons can come to mind the truth however is that our ability to fight them is within our control there are times in my life where i feel that i will go crazy due to other analysis of certain happenstances in my paradigm i'm not sure how to deal with specific scenarios and more often than not i tend to question the reality of those scenarios my perception might be prone to certain biases and prejudices and cloud my judgment so i tend to question the basis of every claim that i make despite how awkward this process might

seem it is a process that can yield tremendous benefits in one's journey to assimilate the shadow your shadow due to its dark nature is constantly forming a cloud over your judgment this cloud can never disappear but it can certainly abate through meticulous introspection and cultivation of wisdom by some strange technological and philosophical osmosis we can create a universal moral framework that can be accepted by every soul on this planet this might sound ambitious but trust me it's not humans have always found ways to co-exist and respect each other because the notion of coexistence is central

to our survival our evolution has created countless iterations of our species but our bedrock is more or less the same what does not allow us to behave constantly in a respectful and mutually beneficial way is the shadow when the shadow takes over any discussion for a universal moral framework cannot find fruitful ground we negotiate and debate and exchange verbal tantrums in an attempt to defend our point of view and our position in the dominance hierarchy of society some people do that in a more ethical way and in order to defend goodness but most just keep

perpetuating bainal attitudes and approaches and it is this banality and triviality of existence that needs to be dealt with in order to identify what is morally good actually it is the combination of that and the ability to showcase common sense in the face of trivial matters with common sense the discovery of a solution to most of our problems could be accelerated dramatically life might be an amalgamation of complex instances but our cognitive apparatus is more than capable of making sense of them all it takes is to offer clarity to our judgment and common sense is

the imperative in that respect especially when it comes to orienting ourselves towards what is morally good dr jordan peterson likes to promulgate that life struggle and that unless you don't voluntarily accept this as a fact struggle will keep manifesting itself in every facet of your existence life is suffering right indisputable what do you do about that you you voluntarily accept it and then strive to overcome the suffering that's a consequence of that i like this idea a lot because it reminds me how important clarity is when it comes to the betterment of our living conditions

in order to ameliorate something you need to understand its mechanics maybe something isn't working well because a part that comprises the hole is actually malfunctioning when we break down the hole in parts and fastidiously examine these parts we can discover details about systems that are usually obscure then we can go back to the system itself and look at how what we discovered can improve the performance of the system as a whole a bottom-up approach is always more effective and usually more meritocratic thus empowering the parts to work synergistically for a common cause clarity manifests itself

that way when you allow the part to discover all its nuances and all its capabilities you end up with a reinforced version of it that can offer more to the whole humans operate like that and the dawn of the internet made that idea more vivid we experience a collective awakening that can perhaps lead to a collective enlightenment information becomes widely accessible and we can improve our error correcting mechanisms just by asking and gathering as many views as possible that right here is the essence of clarity and its only obstacle is the shadow a person who

clings to outdated and ill-defined views will only reinforce the shadow and stagnating a swamp of confusion incessant knowledge seeking is the name of the game a game we should all prepare to play i want to conclude this video essay with a passage from the red book probably carl jung's most important work be silent and listen have you recognized your madness and do you admit it have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner you wanted to accept everything

so accept madness too let the light of your madness shine and it will suddenly dawn on you madness is not to be despised and not to be feared but instead you should give it life if you want to find paths you should also not spurn madness since it makes up such a great part of your nature be glad that you can recognize it for you will thus avoid becoming its victim madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies but even more to a daily life since life itself is

full of craziness and at the bottom utterly logical man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself life itself has no rules that is its mystery and its unknown law what you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life there is not much to say after you read those words only that there is so much madness in life but there is also so much truth and madness