Notes on Jung 04: Confronting One's Shadow

Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious

“True, whoever looks into the mirror of the water will see first of all his own face. Whoever goes to himself risks a confrontation with himself. The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor. But the mirror lies behind the mask and shows the true face.”

Water is the symbol of the collective unconscious. Diving into the depths of this water would be to venture into the Underworld, a realm that is rarely visited on will. Since the collective unconscious is the seat of emotion, instinct and subjective experience, the brave decision to undertake the journey downward can be expected to be met with all manner of subjective “demons” that pounce upon the one who dares enter into their kingdom. In the conscious realm that we occupy for much of our lives, we repeat more or less simplified behaviours that we have learned to execute by habit. The architecture of our world is built for precisely this purpose, such that even on entering a room for the first time, we encounter already-solved perceptual problems as the elements and objects that constitute that room announce their specific uses to us, such that we need only follow the rules of the game. We are so habituated to this rhythm that any act of deviation on our part or on the part of the other occupants of that particular slice of space and time causes great discomfort. Our society, economy and country function so relatively perfectly almost all the time that we take them for granted. But they are in fact, run by individuals, seething with complexity that seem to be able to keep all of it in to pursue agreed-upon goals for agreed-upon reasons. 

“This confrontation is the first test of courage on the inner way, a test sufficient to frighten off most people, for the meeting with ourselves belongs to the more unpleasant things that can be avoided so long as we can project everything negative into the environment. But if we are able to see our own shadow and can bear knowing about it, then a small part of the problem has already been solved: we have at least brought up the personal unconscious. 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.”

The collective unconscious however is a whole new world in itself. It is not structured like the worlds we have built, it is not made of objective objects that we can pick up and use to our ends. Instead, it is made up of very subjective, but very real spirits, or sub-personalities, as the psychoanalysts would say. We do not run these spirits, at least not most of the time. Rather, we are run by them. The initial dip into the pool of the unconscious is like confronting oneself, or rather, the part of oneself that one least wishes to meet. To become aware of the wickedest part of oneself and the extent to which this wickedness will go to further its ends, is an unpleasant jolt. However, it is imperative to come to terms with the wickedness that dwells within one’s confines, and integrate it properly in our psyche.

“Strong natures—or should one rather call them weak?—do not like to be reminded of this, but prefer to think of themselves as heroes who are beyond good and evil, and to cut the Gordian knot instead of untying it. Nevertheless, the account has to be settled sooner or later. In the end one has to admit that there are problems which one simply cannot solve on one’s own resources. Such an admission has the advantage of being honest, truthful, and in accord with reality, and this prepares the ground for a compensatory reaction from the collective unconscious: you are now more inclined to give heed to a helpful idea or intuition, or to notice thoughts which had not been allowed to voice themselves before...When you have done everything that could possibly be done, the only thing that remains is what you could still do if only you knew it. But how much do we know of ourselves? Precious little, to judge by experience. Hence there is still a great deal of room left for the unconscious.”

Man’s consciousness is not sufficient to solve all his problems. To presume that one already possesses all the tools that one would need, would be to consider all problems solved. But the turmoil in Man’s soul is proof that that is not the case. There are some answers that lie concealed deep in the subjective world. There is even more valuable wisdom that is in the grip of the demons that inhabit one, and it is only when one makes the conscious decision to wrestle with those demons, that one is able to subdue them. To come to terms with one’s inadequacy is likely to make one more receptive of the thoughts, symbols and ideas that the unconscious throws up when we are at our most helpless.

“The meeting with oneself is, at first, the meeting with one’s own shadow. The shadow is a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well...No, the collective unconscious is anything but an encapsulated personal system; it is sheer objectivity, as wide as the world and open to all the world. There I am the object of every subject, in complete reversal of my ordinary consciousness, where I am always the subject that has an object.”

Jung explains how the individual first enters the personal unconscious on his journey downward, and then the collective unconscious, should he be relentless in his aim to advance deeper. The shadow, i.e., one’s capacity to cause the maximum mayhem resides in the personal unconscious, and to come face to face with it might be frightening enough to convince oneself that the demon that stands before one is one that resides without. In doing so, one is trapped in the self-righteous belief of one’s own harmlessness. If however, one should choose to direct one’s discerning eye towards oneself instead of the outer world, to make oneself the object rather than the subject, one might stand a chance in integrating one’s shadow in a healthier way into one’s psyche so that it can be put to one’s use, rather than one being put to its.