Me and My Shadow

[Cryss Winters]

-hums the song-
How would that work? Would we consciously know when our 'shadow' has taken over? Are there triggers to it?

 

[Jordan~]

I find that my shadow is also English and far wealthier than myself. This makes one feel somewhat inadequate.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Your shadow is everything you repress, everything you fear & hate.
If your shadow did somehow take over it would be the exact opposite of you.

Were you to do something abhorrent then immediately feel remorse for having done it, that would be an example of your shadow getting loose, temporarily.

Through the course of psychological development one learns to incorporate their shadow into themself safely. If however one's psychological development is pushed too fast then the shadow elements can unbalance the psyche, resulting in serious problems such as sociopathic behaviour.

 

[Auburn]

Hm... interesting...
So is my shadow all those things I think about, saying to myself: "I would never do that!"...?

Is the shadow the opposite of my conscience?
If one were to take the book in my mind that has all of my "dos and don'ts" - would the shadow be composed of all the "don'ts"?

But if so, then how is incorporation one's shadow into oneself something to be desired? Would it not just be accepting and incorporating all the behaviors you disprove of and hate into yourself? What would become of you after that? You would become everything you used to hate, and would lose your conscience. No behavior of yours would seem immoral to you.

The thought of that is actually frightening to me for some reason...

 

[Ermine]

-hums the song-
How would that work? Would we consciously know when our 'shadow' has taken over? Are there triggers to it?

"46 and 2" I presume? Love that song.

From what I've read and observed, the shadow is a negative version of the polar opposite of your personality, in this case, ESFJ. The monster in us all we can't understand.

As for me, I think I kind of realize it when my shadow takes over. It's essentially whenever I experience a breakdown and/or am extremely stressed. I'll explain how it turns out being ESFJ-like.

E: I get much more needy and vocal, end up thinking aloud and saying a lot of things I don't mean

Si: I lose my usual long term vision and forget about all the possibilities I usually entertain in my head and only see what's right in front of me, in the here and now. I also let convention restrict me a lot more. I tend to get extremely disillusioned because things aren't the same as they used to be.

Fe: I get much more outwardly emotional and my love of reason goes out the window. It gets ridiculous. I also care way too much about what people might think.

J: I'm much more rigid, and assume I'm right at all costs. I also get way too dependent on plans. It's my way or the highway.

I'm not assuming all ESFJs are monsters, but my shadow adopts only negative ESFJ qualities, as it's a shadow.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Is the shadow the opposite of my conscience?
If one were to take the book in my mind that has all of my "dos and don'ts" - would the shadow be composed of all the "don'ts"?

But if so, then how is incorporation one's shadow into oneself something to be desired? Would it not just be accepting and incorporating all the behaviors you disprove of and hate into yourself?

The shadow isn't the "dark side" of morality... err, how can I explain this?

For lack of an easier example lets use homophobia.
Someone who is homophobic considers non-typical relationships to be "bad", "evil", "immoral" or "disgusting", so if this person was to personify his/her shadow the attribute of homosexuality would be an integral part of it. Here we have a clear example that demonstrates the relationship between the shadow and psychological maturity; whereby the development of maturity would be the acceptance of non-typical preferences in society and thus dispelling the person in question of their phobia.
That person's personal preferences are never changed, instead they are changing their perspective regarding the preferences of others.

Further down the darker side of morality would be something like the capacity to kill, an almost universal shadow aspect in society. By incorporating this aspect into oneself in a controlled manner the person develops psychologically into a more mature and thus capable person. To demonstrate how this shadow element could be a positive addition to one's psyche, imagine you were on a farm and in order to have dinner that night you would need to kill a chicken, could you do it? Or imagine your in a hospital and a victim of severe radiation poisoning is asking you to assist him commit suicide, considering that refusing to do so would doom him to days of unimaginable pain & indignity before death finally claims him, could you do it? Could you walk away in good conscience?

Of course murdering someone would be an example of the shadow overwhelming oneself temporarily; or in the absence of remorse the shadow has been forced upon the mind and has thus unbalanced it.

What would become of you after that? You would become everything you used to hate, and would lose your conscience. No behavior of yours would seem immoral to you.

That would be an unbalanced mind, one that wasn't ready for such an extent of the shadow to be forced upon it.

 

[Android]

My "shadow" is what led to my diagnoses as bipolar (which I'm not.. I don't think). I acted very immaturely.. lots of coke, speed, strippers, prostitutes, bank fraud, theft, etc .. pure hedonism. I'd rather not explain further.

Edit: I should add the alienation of family and friends part.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

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 rationalised 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. [The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - C.G.Jung: pg 20-21]

I have, I think, found a suitable designation for this character-component when I called it the shadow On the civilized level, it is regarded as a personal "gaffe", "slip", "faux pas", etc., which are then chalked up as defects of the conscious personality. We are no longer aware that in carnival customs and the like there are remnants of a collective shadow figure which prove that the personal shadow is in part descended from a numinous collective figure. This collective figure gradually breaks up under the impact of civilization, leaving traces in folklore which are difficult to recognize. But the main part of him gets personalized and is made an object of personal responsibility. [The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - C.G.Jung: pg 262]

Another, no less important and clearly defined figure is the "shadow". Like the anima, it appears either in projection on suitable persons, or or personified as such in dreams. The shadow coincides with the "personal" unconscious (which corresponds to Freud's conception of the unconscious). (...) The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly - for instance, inferior traits of character or other incompatible tendencies. [The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - C.G.Jung: pg 284-285]

The Shadow is not so much that which is 'repressed' as it is those aspects of one's self which one refuses to acknowledge. These aspects of one's nature are not suppressed because to suppress something implies acknowledgement of its existence, and in the view of one's consciousness, the aspects of the Shadow do not exist. They are simply 'not there' to one's consciousness, which is why when aspects of one's Shadow do emerge, they take one by surprise. One is totally baffled that one would speak or act in such a manner.

 

[brain enclosed in flesh]

My "shadow" is what led to my diagnoses as bipolar (which I'm not.. I don't think). I acted very immaturely.. lots of coke, speed, strippers, prostitutes, bank fraud, theft, etc .. pure hedonism. I'd rather not explain further.

Edit: I should add the alienation of family and friends part.

Don't mean to sidetrack, but it seems there are a number of people on here who were diagnosed or suspected of being bipolar. I would say that for me my bipolar episode (there's only really been one) was my shadow coming out with a vengeance and taking over for an extended period of time. Bipolar tends to be something many people think of as being more of an F disorder, but it seems to be relatively common around here...

Just observing.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I highly recommend Naomi Quenk's book Beside Ourselves.

Robert Johnson's Owning Your Own Shadow is also good.

Dave

 

[echoplex]

I usually think the INTP's shadow is ESFJ, but if you take the 4 "unconscious" functions Te, Ni, Se, Fi, you get ENTJ.

I actually think they're both our shadows, and so we have two different ones. ESFJ would be our "conscious" shadow, or our weaker, immature self that we tend to hide. While ENTJ would be our "unconscious" shadow, that we tend to not be aware of.

So one is highly emotional and traditional (perhaps?), and the other is a loudmouth who is never wrong. Yeah, I can see how those may seem unappealing to us. lol

How would that work? Would we consciously know when our 'shadow' has taken over? Are there triggers to it?

I think we would begin to know as we mature because we would learn to notice the patterns that lead to it taking over. I think the triggers are situations where we believe our dominant functions aren't enough. So we panic and start using parts of ourselves that are unfamiliar to us.

 

[Cryss Winters]

I usually think the INTP's shadow is ESFJ, but if you take the 4 "unconscious" functions Te, Ni, Se, Fi, you get ENTJ.

I actually think they're both our shadows, and so we have two different ones. ESFJ would be our "conscious" shadow, or our weaker, immature self that we tend to hide. While ENTJ would be our "unconscious" shadow, that we tend to not be aware of.

So one is highly emotional and traditional (perhaps?), and the other is a loudmouth who is never wrong. Yeah, I can see how those may seem unappealing to us. lol


I think we would begin to know as we mature because we would learn to notice the patterns that lead to it taking over. I think the triggers are situations where we believe our dominant functions aren't enough. So we panic and start using parts of ourselves that are unfamiliar to us.

Nice post, echoplex.

...loudmouth who is never wrong... haha​

 

[Carnap]

@Brain : I think bipolar has genetic implications. Evolutionary-wise they speculate that it could have originated either due to long winter seasons where depression would save energy, etc, and short summers where 'mania' would be productive for food gathering, hightened sex drive for mating, etc.
Although it causes some problems if one inherits too many of the genes, there do seem to be some benefits like risk taking, supposed creativity, etc. That is why evolution didn't do away with it. But again, that may be a Panglossian version of evolutionary psychology, because sometimes we find things in nature for no reason.

As for the whole shadow thing, I guess I could site some of my behaviors to my shadow taking over, i.e. emotional !