THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHADOW

Abstract

The term shadow refers to that part of the personality which has been repressed for the sake of the ego ideal. Since everything unconscious is projected, we encounter the shadow in projection—in our view of "the other fellow." As a figure in dreams or fantasies the shadow represents the personal unconscious. It is like a composite of the personal shells of our complexes and is thus the doorway to all deeper transpersonal experiences. Practically speaking, the shadow more often than not appears as an inferior personality. However, there can also be a positive shadow, which appears when we tend to identify with our negative qualities and repress the positive ones. The following example of the shadow is a classical one from a familiar situation. A middle-aged patient complains repeatedly and bitterly about her mother-in-law. Her description seems by and large to be correct and adequate, for her husband, independently of his wife, has provided a description which is practically identical. Mother is seen by both as utterly domineering, never able to admit another person's viewpoint, in the habit of asking for advice and at once deprecating it, always feeling at a disadvantage, abused, martyred and, as a result of all this, almost impossible to reach. Our analysand, the daughter-in-law, feels that her mother-in-law stands between her and her husband; the son must constantly serve his mother, and the wife consequently feels eclipsed. Her marital situation seems to be in a hopeless impasse. She has the following dream: I am in a dark hallway. I attempt to reach my husband, but my way is barred by my mother-in-law. What is most frightening, however, is that my mother-in-law cannot sec me, even though a spotlight shines brightly upon me. It is as if I did not exist at all as far as she is concerned.