Shadow Self

First to clarify some jargon in Jung & Freud: The SELF of each individual is made up of the Conscious and the Unconscious. The Conscious is called the EGO and is the part (or time spent) of the Conscious in which the individual has identified or determined as defining who he or she is. PSYCHE refers to both personal mind and the larger or Universal mind. The Unconscious includes, according to Jung, both a "Collective" unconscious composed of biological, racial and cultural memories or trace engrams. Possibly there is a DNA-based carrier for these.

There is also a PERSONAL unconscious which contains, amongst other things, REPRESSED sensations, feelings, thought or intuitions which do not conform with the Ego's consciously decided role or identity- picture. Jung's shadow-self therapy (which I practice occasionally) draws upon this rejected collection of material as a RESOURCE which is available for those brave enough to explore them. The bravery is in temporarily discarding (advice of) the Ego required to access these memories or sensations. Jung calls this assemblage or rejected alter-ego the Shadow. Jung thought that his form of therapy best suited those approaching middle or old age after having achieved some degree of success in family life or in social status, but who now suffered a sense of meaninglessness or alienation. Freud's sex-centred therapy is generally thought to be more suitable for younger people. However, I have observed that some types of people (of whatever age) are drawn to express themselves via art/ images/ mysticism and narrative, whilst others (of any age) better conform to ID- driven Freudian types of therapy.

Folks largely SELF-SELECT the type of therapy which appeals to them, and if they are interested enough to make the EFFORT to have an Enochian Chess reading, then Shadow therapy and resulting experiential phenomena is often appropriate.

What the therapy seeks is INDIVIDUATION, a process whereby we become integrated and complete by not only facing the Shadow, but recognising and incorporating it into the Self. This overcomes a fundamental duality in human nature that we touched upon in part one. Archetypes from the unconscious are worked through in art, religious or Meditational practices, and used in the mastery of the Self. An individuated person can see that the `personality' is just one of many possibilities, a mask even, that can be put on or put aside appropriate to the conditions which social necessity imposes on us. Dream analysis has a larger role in Jungian work than in other therapies, because Jung believed that in dreams we can best access the archetypes and the shadow.