The Shadow

One of the most harrowing radio programmes I have listened to in a long time was broadcast on the BBC recently . Its includes an interview of a Congolese woman who was captured and abused by a group called the Interhamwe. I won't go into all the details of the atrocities that occurred, because you can listen to the broadcast yourself if you go here. However if you do listen to it, be prepared to be profoundly unsettled.

The broadcast left me with a feeling of profound despair at the depths of cruelty the human species is capable of sinking to. I was left questioning whether the appearance of civilisation we normally display is merely a paper-thin veneer, covering up the hidden savagery beneath. It is not as if this is an isolated incident, you don't have to listen to the news for too long to hear of many more examples.

After the initial feeling of horror abated I started thinking about this blog, and where I am going with it. Is it merely an intellectual exercise in making links between therapy and D/s, or is there a wider purpose? I have long been convinced that all humans have a dark side, or a "shadow" as the psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung called it:

"It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware." C.G. Jung. (1912), "On the Psychology of the Unconscious"

Jung believed that it did no good to ignore this "monster" inside, but that it needed to be integrated with the rest of the personality. Achieving this is difficult and uncomfortable work, but the end result is beneficial to the individual and to humanity as a whole:

"If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House of the Gathering." Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day." C.G. Jung. (1938), "Psychology and Religion"

I believe exploring the dominant or submissive sides of your personality can be a form of shadow work. You come face to face with anger, shame, guilt, cruelty, power, weakness, vulnerability and fear. Again to quote Jung:

"Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries." C.G. Jung. (1939), "The Integration of the Personality".

The BBC broadcast reminded me that this work of understanding the shadow is a matter of urgency. As the population expands and resources become more scarce, the demonic side of humanity will become more and more apparent. The more light we can throw on our shadows the less they need to "act out" against the world. If this site can contribute in some small way to this understanding I will be happy.