A Venture in the Dark Side

 

                                    (image: youtube.com)

In the quest of better understanding the SELF to attempt in mastering it, there are multiples studies to be delved into. The literature related to the topic is vast. Yet, this writer is gravitating to the concepts and theories of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung.

One of the readings that can be titillating is this:

There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul. -- Carl Jung (from "New Paths in Psychology", in Collected Papers on Analytic Psychology, London, 1916)

Jung rejected the tabula rasa theory of human psychological development. He proposed that thoughts, connections, behaviors, and feelings exist within the human race such as belonging, love, death, and fear, among others. These constitute what Jung called as "collective unconscious" and the concept of archetypes underpin this notion.

Along the way, these archetypes are embedded in the things that we can reflect. We can look deeper in us to understand the SELF better.

The Persona

The persona (or mask) is the outward face we present to the world. It conceals our real self and Jung describes it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the public face or role a person presents to others as someone different to who we really are (like an actor).

The Anima/Animus

Another archetype is the anima/animus. The “anima/animus” is the mirror image of our biological sex, that is, the unconscious feminine side in males and the masculine tendencies in women. Each sex manifests attitudes and behavior of the other by virtue of centuries of living together. The psyche of a woman contains masculine aspects (the animus archetype), and the psyche of a man contains feminine aspects (the anima archetype).

The Shadow

Next is the shadow. This is the animal side of our personality (like the id in Freud). It is the source of both our creative and destructive energies. In line with evolutionary theory, it may be that Jung’s archetypes reflect predispositions that once had survival value.

The Self

Finally, there is the self which provides a sense of unity in experience. For Jung, the ultimate aim of every individual is to achieve a state of self-hood (similar to self-actualization), and in this respect, Jung (like Erikson) is moving in the direction of a more humanist orientation.

The quest to become a better individual to be a person of the world is to realize his/her potential. Still, this writer is very much intrigued with The Shadow. This was awakened as the plot of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was revisited.

There is a need to control The Shadow to arrive to the full potentials of The Self.