The Persona and Shadow.pdf

Jung’s Landscape
Psyche refers to the totality of all psychological
processes. It “embraces all thought, feeling, and
behavior, both conscious and unconscious. It functions
as a guide which regulates and adapts the individual to
his social and physical environment.”

Jung's Model of the Psyche
ego
Ego-Self Axis
Personal
unconscious
consciousness
C
A
A
Self
A
A
C
collective
unconscious
C
C
A
A
C
C
A=Archetype
C=Complex
Adapted from Stevens, 1990, pg. 29

¡ In becoming civilized, we compromise between our
natural inclinations, instincts, and the patterns of
society – what is required
§ One’s public self
§ The mask we wear
§ We have many masks or can have

¡ The persona is oriented toward society in two
ways
§ We create a mask(s) based on what society
expects of us
▪ Think about the masks you have worn from
kindergarten to now…
§ Why have we worn these?

¡ We wear a mask to meet our own
expectations to get society to look at us in a
particular way!
¡ How about here today in the classroom?
¡ What Persona are you portraying right now?

¡ Jung reporting in Singer pg. 159
“When we analyze the persona we strip off the mask,
and discover that what seemed individual is at bottom
collective; in other words, that the persona was only a
mask for the collective psyche. Fundamentally the
persona is nothing real… In a certain sense all this is
real, yet in relation to the essential individuality of the
person concerned it is only a secondary reality, a
product of compromise, in making which others often
have a greater share than he”.

¡ The Persona is nothing but a status symbol!
¡ And the danger is we believe that “I” am that!
¡ This may work well enough until something
happens to change or damage the mask that
interposed between the reality of the person
and the desired image. Then the person may
begin to wonder, “Who am I”.

Let’s Meet The Shadow

R.D. Laing
The Other Within Us…
“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And
because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to
change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds”

¡
“Within each woman and man, the dim
cavern of the unconscious holds our
forbidden feelings, secret wishes, and
creative urges. Over time, these ‘dark’
forces take on a life of their own, forming
an intuitively recognizable figure – the
Shadow. A recurring theme in literature
and legend, the Shadow is like an invisible
twin, a stranger that is us, yet is not us.
When it acts out in the public domain, we
witness our leaders, like hero-­‐villains, fall
from grace in scandal. Closer to home,
we may feel overcome with rage,
obsession, and shame or succumb to self-­destructive
lies, addiction, and
depression. These appearances of the
Shadow introduce us to the Other, a
powerful force that defies our efforts to
tame and control it.”
(Zweig)

¡
“[The Shadow] is everything in us that is
unconscious, repressed, undeveloped and denied.
These are dark rejected aspects of our being as
well as light, so there is positive undeveloped
potential in the Shadow that we don’t know about
because anything that is unconscious remains
hidden from our active conscious mind…
A confrontation with the Shadow is essential for
self awareness. We cannot learn about ourselves if
we do not learn about our Shadow, so, therefore,
we are going to attract it through the mirrors of
other people.”
(Eigen).

¡ “The Shadow is difficult to perceive
consciously. Since an individual will
deny or ignore his or her Shadow side,
it is likely that it will be projected onto
others. Instead of acknowledging their
Shadow, the individual will
unconsciously see it in people they
encounter or even concepts, objects,
ethics or groups... These characteristics
that we find hideous in other people
could in fact be our own repressed
attributes… [we have] stumbled upon
parts of…[our] own Shadow.”
(Wilson)

In literature and film, often the hero’s Shadow is embodied within a foil character.
But not every hero/villain pairing is a true Shadow relationship. When the hero’s
darker side exists within another character, there must also be a strong surface
connection evident between the protagonist and antagonist. They are similar, but
disparate. The similarities pull them together as the differences tear them asunder.

Within the Batman film The Dark Knight, the co-­‐dependent relationship between hero
and villain, light and dark, is pushed to center stage. The Joker repeatedly states that
the existence of Batman spurned the creation of the Joker, that each operates against
and because of the other. Every coin needs two sides and although the Joker states it
flippantly, there is a meaningful subtext when he says to Batman, “You complete
me.”

The Stars Wars universe is chock-­‐full of deliberate archetypes. The Shadow is no exception. The
promotional image to the left directly speaks to the fact that Anakin Skywalker will eventually grow
up to be swallowed by his Shadow; he will fall and rise anew as the black-­‐hearted Darth Vader. His
literal shadow foreshadows the eventual power his psychological Shadow will possess. The
promotional image on the right again highlights this duality, within Anakin, of both light and dark.
Tatters of the left portion remain human, but the majority of his face is covered in robotic darkness.

In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, a complex system of Self and Shadow is established. There are many surface
similarities between the halfling hero Frodo and his shadowy counterpart Gollum. Frodo Baggins is a hobbit, the
type of creature Gollum used to be. Both have intimate knowledge of the pain and power associated with the role
of a ring-­‐bearer. But Frodo has not yet been completely overcome by his Shadow while Gollum has almost been
defeated by the darkness within. Even within this Shadow representative, there is a further split between good
and evil. Gollum has two distinct personalities bearing several differing names – Smeagol/Slinker still remembers
shreds of his humanity while Gollum/Stinker no longer yearns for the touch of interior sunlight.

¡ http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wxN2Mewamj0
¡ http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=DLvIFRNbqOs

¡
¡
¡
¡
Eigen, Rebecca. "The Shadow Dance – Understanding Repetitive Patterns in
Relationships.” ShadowDance.com. 09 June 2009. ShadowDance Unlimited. 27 Aug
2009 .
Jung, C. G.. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2 nd ed. New York:
Princeton University Press, 1959. Print.
Wilson, Kevin. "Confrontation With the Shadow.“ Insomnium.com. 27 Aug 2009
.
Zweig, Connie, and Steve Wolf. Romancing the Shadow: Illuminating the Dark Side of the
Soul. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1997. Print.