Carl Jung — The persona and the shadow
The homo sapien is a composite of a massive number of constituents. If one learns how to conquer himself and employ them for his purpose and the meaning of his life, he shall thrive.
What are we looking at here? The debris? The number of stars? The serendipitous beauty? Well, the objects here are innumerable. And this sure isn’t an invitation to a stargazing night. In fact, the plot in this article is much deeper than that, it’s about darkness and light. However, I would love to bring in Carl Jung first, the most famous Swiss psychiatrist or psychoanalyst. He introduced in one of his Jungian ideas the 4 theories of a personality, the anima, the persona, the shadow, and the self. And I would surely not delve into that, as I would estimate that this topic’s density amounts to 190 metric tons of Uranium at the least. However, I am here to shed light on the persona and the shadow among the four theories. In simple terms, Jung describes the psyche, the totality of the human’s mind, including his conscious and subconscious, as well as his soul or existence, in different layers. And that description can be illustrated in several forms, I would urge you to actively read this and search for them during this read or at a later time, it will definitely be illuminating. Moving back to the point, the persona, is how we present ourselves to the world, this is where the word persona is literally derived from a Latin word that means “mask”. Therefore, the persona definitely exists in the conscious layer of the human mind. As he tries his best to project something to the outer world, and subconsciously to the inner one too. On the other hand, the shadow, its somewhat nemesis, exists in the subconscious mind, composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and more. And in here, we witness the true animalistic, instinctual, dark side of the mind, the one that correlates to Freud’s Id. It is also of high importance to explain that the shadow “forms out of our attempts to adapt to cultural norms and expectations.” Which means that given the subconscious is a 24/7 analyzing machine, wherever and whatever you are in at any given point of space and time, if its negative, it will definitely feed your shadow self.
And let that be, so that when we expressively articulate descriptions about ourselves, we neither refer to the good in us as a praise or in the form of a grant or grace, nor to the evil or bad in an explicit or a definitive form of Satan. Such absolutism, such black and white, will only amplify further unadulterated judgement. So, what is the moral from tackling these different dimensions you must think? Well, one is to try as much as possible not to contribute in forming another chasm in this earth, whereas many people openly blend-in all sorts of discourses until you see them eschewing all events that would discuss ideas they do not stand by in an attempt not to change their color. However, this attempt, in their point of view, is shaped on the basis of that no other color on the rainbow spectrum that is as important as mine, or maybe worse, there is no color but blue. Furthermore, and more significantly, the focal point in this article is about understanding that darkness, or black, is actually the absence of light, it does not grow on light, it is the other way around. If you ponder upon everything in the universe, beginning with the space, with all its galaxies, plasma, magnetic fields, and the 200 billion trillion stars estimated to exist in it, they are all accessories on a fine-made high-end fabric, that is black.
And by that, one shall acknowledge the fact that as he can be a saint or a martyr, he can also be a serial killer or a cannibal. It all exists within you. And in order to transcend and be in agency, you shall willingly face it. And as Jung said “The shadow is a living part of the personality and therefore wants to live with it in some form. It cannot be argued out of existence or rationalized into harmlessness. This problem is exceedingly difficult, because it not only challenges the whole man, but reminds him at the same time of his helplessness and ineffectuality.” — Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. This now, is an invitation to the reader, to realize that the vicissitudes he undergoes in his life, aren’t a matter of evil or good, rather a matter of existentialism and behaviorism. We need to digest the fact that our mind has been moulded in such a form that includes a vast number of factors that subsist on divergent layers such as the neurological, the spiritual, and the psychological. Which all contain the utility and space for constructing ourselves and earth, or their demolition.
