[Main Blog Post] [Book] Transforming Darkness

[jprussell]

This week, after the possibly synchronicity of folks asking about working with Jung's concept of the Shadow on JMG's Magic Monday right after having read an excerpt of a book on the Shadow, I decided to give it a read. It's called Transforming Darkness, and I found it interesting and helpful, though if you've read much on the subject or done much of such work, you might not find much new here.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts here or through email.

Comments

[thinking_turtle]

Thanks for your reply! My current belief is that humans swing between good and bad moods. If you "deal with your shadow", you would eliminate the good mood along with the bad mood, and your mental life would become bland. Emotions like anger, loneliness or pain are "pushers" where happy emotions are "pullers". Shadowy emotions are pushing your attention to something that needs attention. This line of thinking worked for my back pain, where repressing it with pain killers or therapy made things worse, and changing my luxury chair into a simple stool improved things.

So I'm leaning towards becoming friends with the shadow instead of fighting it. I'm working to enjoy the mood swings, instead of always trying to have a good mood. The concept of sublimation sounds interesting, thanks for the pointer!

Cheers, Thinking-Turtle

[lincoln_lynx]

You are in good company with this belief. The Jung To Live By YT channel / podcast consider the Shadow a compensatory function, you're never finished with it, there's always contents you're not conscious of, and the Shadow makes sure you deal with them eventually.

[jprussell]

Agreed that it's sensible, and it's funny you mention "Jung to Live By," as Davis strongly recommended them a few places in the book and I've been meaning to check them out, I just prefer reading to video, so I hadn't gotten to it yet.

[lincoln_lynx]

They are interesting and frustrating in equal measure for me. Jung pointed out much of his work was his personal myth and I like how the "Jung To Live By" people put modern Jungians on blast for basically taking Jung as dogma. Their own system posits three main mental pathologies, Jungian, spirituality-related, Adlerian which are psycho-social (various power complexes and so on), and then Freudian. I find that and other parts of their theory interesting. And they go on and on about theory, then more theory, oh and if it's not enough theory, fear not, for you'll get another side of theory with your theory. I haven't read their books which might offer more practical advice but from the videos and podcasts you'd think for the practical advice section they'd tell you to get yourself a Jungian therapist who does hypnosis and leave it at that. Despite such frustrations, I consider them the best Jungian podcast, by far.

[jprussell]

Hah! I wonder if this might be a case of perverse incentives - it wouldn't surprise me at all if the folks who will want to subscribe to a Jungian youtube channel and watch video after video are more interested in theory than practice! I suppose they're largely following in Jung's footsteps, since his writings are mostly theory.

I agree that the idea of high-level categories of mental pathologies is interesting. Hearing that they're available as a podcast as well is also encouraging, as I tend to prefer either reading or listening to videos (reading when I have dedicated time, listening for commutes and chores, videos when I don't have another option).

Thanks again,
Jeff

[lincoln_lynx]

A good point. The hosts have said that often those drawn to Jung and according to their system, believe they have a Jungian pathology, have an Adlerian pathology instead, which in this context would mean there's a lot of folks interested in Jung purely for the sense of superiority they feel from understanding him. (Or thinking they understand him.)

[jprussell]

Huh, that's an interesting hypothesis, and seems plausible at least on a first pass.