WELCOME TO THE SHADOWS

WHY NOT START WITH A DEEP PURPLE? THIS IS about the SHADOW, THE CRUX OF ALL THAT MATTERS, THE CRUX OF WHETHER WE WILL ORGANIZE ENOUGH CONSCIOUSNESS TO STUDY OUR INNER LIVES AND HOW WE USE THOSE PARTS TO DEAL WITH ALL THE REST.

OKAY...The "shadow" is a term coined by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. It refers to the parts within ourselves which we experience as uncomfortable. More than uncomfortable, we often find them unacceptable. The self described peaceful religious meek person, for example, might find inner (or outer) anger unthinkable, even outside possible consideration. Always there are exceptions as when generally empathic people had no problems with American torture in Guantamo. Here again the shadow rears its head as those in Guantanamo, could be "terrorists" and even without proof, became in the mind of many less than human.

The more aggressive cowboy types might find real fear and vulnerability unthinkable. (Notice the notable exception as in rehab or church the same people have no problem with complete surrender) As such we have different but broad tendencies towards ejecting--denying--and projecting those defined weaknesses, ugliness, aspects that seem unacceptable to one's conscious mind.

Nothing about this is new in and of itself; Jung's general interest was about psychological health including an integration of all our sides. What is new, perhaps, is how unpopular this notion, has been in our daily lives. And in addition it has been rare for us to look for the shadow sides in our leaders or in their positions, and certainly religion in general has not been open to study in this regard.

Getting back to Jung, his relevancy couldn't be more compelling. Jung's concern of urgency, stated forcefully in his 1957 book The Undiscovered Self, was that the unintegrated shadow would definitely spell the end of our planet, since it would only intensify the tendency for people to demonize those who own emotions untolerated from within. We already seen many religions be fanatically hateful, judgmental to their own who break the impossible commandmentws of most religions, and threatening over the ages and today, to destroy those who threaten one's (or one's group or nation) sense of superiority. It was already a given, in 1957 that nuclear weapons could express the undigested darker sides of destruction; now we have the additions of environmental dangers, genocide and terrorism.

If one doesn't know a part of himself/herself, it is all the harder to tame that part. As such there are sudden explosions in apparently calm polite people. In the most extreme forms, we find generally respected and respectable people degraded and degrading others, the most recent examples in the Holocaust. However even here we have found Americans who claim patriotism an excuse for widely used torture by American military, in Guantanamo. People who usually don't do bad things can shift, gradually or not, to prejudice which justifies vicious and sadistic behavior which can be rationalized by keeping one's distance from the human aspect of another. In other words, "Of course I hate torture but if it's about terrorists, who cares?"

Once we see behavior as horrific, we tend to judge it, find it repulsive and swear it can never be repeated by any of us, even when we know that victims of torture or abuse tend to repeat the abuse. Most, if not all perpetrators, were once victims. But aside from that Jung said we are all potential criminals, and that we need to process our history as part of nations who have indulged in colonialism and slavery for two.

The promise of the shadow is that it allows us humanity, and love for as he said, perfect people don't need love for they are without need.

I want to devote some energy to promote integrating these insights into a framework for looking at, not only psychotherapy, but also our political lives and global concerns.

I have recently thought a great deal about human ecology, for which my definition includes a connectedness of all beings and things and a connection to all parts of ourselves. If our inner lives are too ugly, how can we get to know those outside us, or the more difficult problems on the earth. We can find the cause du jour and join George Clooney (don't get me wrong, I love George Clooney) in Darfur and then the Sudan wins out over the Congo which has the same and simultaneous genocide and few talk about studying the causes of genocide.

And then there is domestic poverty which is avoided because we judge those less fortunate than us as lazy while those in expensive rehabs are applauded by the 12 Steps that elevate those who admit a lack of control over their own lives. With the right social status and the right addictions, it's all okay and it's all hypocracy.

The point is not to be holier than thou, or to show disdain even for hypocracy....I've been part of it, and he/she who has none, would be above all of us.

I very much love the fact that Barack Obama is our President. I am greatly relieved that the forces of rumor and hate did not win out. But I hope this poses a beginning for our willingness to look within, on personal and national and international levels.

I hope I'm not alone in this one...because it could be about salvation without divine intervention or worship. I hope some will sign up for this work; it is not as exciting as a Presidential campaign but it can't be less important.

Let me just add, not in any way part of a commercial plea, that shadow work can be full or humor as we own up to our lapses in judgment, all the times we started to say one thing and lost touch with our own language, and looking at our flaws with less defense...(Confession, I cannot always sustain humor when the butt of it is me).

For my close people and the rest who wonder why I go on and on about the Shadow I hope it's starting to make a bit of sense....

And in the spirit of rising to the occasion of our lives on this planet and in this nation of America, which would have to include awareness and processing of the difficult parts of our history, which include a past of ownerwship, slavery and abuse of Native Americans, I hope to embrace the good, bad and ugly to have a happy Thanksgiving....
You know ---ecology---it's about connecting to everything....