Another short and fantastic read on the ideas of the shadow and its related elements. Johnson's text is extremely accessible, and goes into a well-rounded understanding of the shadow, examining both the negative and positive aspects we bury into our shadow. Johnson discusses how religion, properly understood, and Christianity, in a full process of the mass, really embraces the light and dark and helps us access/understand that in ourselves. He discusses where we are at in culture right now, and how the collective shadow can certainly be destructive; if we all do our inner work though, as he quotes Jung, we aren't doomed.
I enjoyed this book on many levels. It further enriched and deepened my understanding of the shadow, which is preparing me for writing my Jungian Psych paper. It touched on ideas of the wounded healer, which I will set aside for my possible future dissertation topic. And it discussed embracing opposites and accepting paradoxes, something I am personally interested in. Actually, a lot of what he discussed, including the shadow in marriage, resonated on a real and personal level, beyond the realm of studies and in the realm of real applicable life-stuff. "To own one's shadow is to prepare the ground for spiritual experience" (91).
The final concept I want to mention is the mandorla that Johnson has introduced me to. Similar to the mandala, which I've grown to love through Jung's works, the mandorla (the overlap between two circles) offers "safety and sureness in our fractured world" (103). Johnson also discussed language as a mandorla, which really excited the English-teacher side of me! "To make any well formed sentence is to make unity out of duality. This is immensely healing and restorative. We are all poets and healers when we use language correctly" (104).
I have a feeling I will be rereading this little treasure many times!

Note: the below review is not perfect!

I went quick on this book, but I think it is is not bad in describing the way of dealing with the shadow based on Jungian psychology. The shadow is the dark side of your unconsciousness. The self-element that is suppressed by your ego. The unwanted deeds, or the interests you want to focus less on, ashamed of etc..

Robert Johnson believes that the more the bright side is expanded, in self and community, the more the opposite of it, the dark shadow expands. as an example of this, the technological improvement the world had witnessed lead people to war and violence. Thus, individuals and communities should know how to bleed off the pressure induced by the expansion of there shadow. The author sees that art, music, writing, etc are good ways to project the shadow. If you're taking over in the domain of your work/career, for instance, and have been very dedicated and creative, you may have a large push of shadow that you should not project and let it free in the face of your partner, family, friends. The more good you become at something, the more evil tendency you have.

In later chapters the author states the one should not be biased in his character, he should embrace being paradoxical, he says, instead of being contradictory. I think what he meant is to balance what he called the religious and the secular traits and virtues.

Finally, he mentions the above paradoxical traits in the shape of the Mandorla, an almond shape in the intersection of two circles.

I think the such ideas are conveyed in other books/ideologies/philosophies with different terms.

Perhaps I missed the point of this book, but this book read like a long, rambling rant that had no end or connective tissue to the point. Shadow work is something that in theory I feel I understand, but physical application and manifestation of shadow work is something that I still feel a little murky on. I was hoping this book would give some clear insights into what physically owning your shadow looks like, or provide prompting for discovering what and where the shadow is often forced through cultural conventions, or personal relations. I am positive there are many books about shadow work out there. This one missed the mark for me.

I like my psychology with a side of science

While I'm not a Jungian, I have found most of the Jungian ideas that I have been exposed to quite interesting. This book seemed to fall short in it's Jungian psychology, Christian theology, and I'm guessing its Eastern philosophy. I don't think the synthesis of three impoverished perspectives makes for a strong tapestry of coherent thought or theory. It is a good work to prompt self-reflection. Its guidance is of not much use.

Short, but solid.

Deceptively short, yet this work about the Jungian shadow is 118 pages of worthwhile reading. Johnson sums up the shadow, condenses its unfathomable form into something tangible and elucidating. The brief footnotes are helpful, but a work without a bibliography is always disappointing. This book is clear and gives the reader a whole/broad picture, but it certainly could do more. For those who understand the theory this is additional or subsidiary reading to accompany more substantial texts.

This book wonderfully explains one of Jung's most powerful concepts: The Shadow.

It is clear and simple in its explanations. I highly recommend it. To not understand The Shadow is to be walking through life with one eye open.

If you've ever wondered:
"I knew I shouldn't have done that, why did I do that?" or
"Why did I say that? I didn't want to say that and I said it anyway."
"Why do I have such overwhelming fanaticism for so-and-so artist, figure, or romantic partner?" etc.

Then this book is for you.

I originally posted this on a post looking at creativity & depression
There is a school of thought that says we ALL have a shadow side that we try to sublimate or push down. It often comes up when we are partying & do something really stupid that we normally would never do. Or if someone is attracted to children, they act on it when the urge becomes too strong.
I believe the original idea comes from Carl Jung, but Robert A Johnson writes about it in "Owning Your Own Shadow.
He says that we all need to find a creative way to let our dark side out. Otherwise, we will be either self-destructive OR destructive of others.
Even before reading Johnson's book I had a sense of this idea. (Honestly, I don't really understand Jung so I sat mutely through many conversations with grad students when I was younger.)
When I went to Iceland at around 25 years of age, I discovered a country where everyone is encouraged to express themselves creatively, whether it be dance, painting or photography. (I didn't meet any writers, but I did visit a farm house that was filled with books!) Sadly, it occurs to me now as I write that most countries don't want us to feel good so they convince us that only the chosen few are artists. That way, they have plenty of unhappy young men (& now women too) who are willing to express their dark side by going to war. Also, content people don't buy as many products to try to make themselves happy.
Later, I discovered the Popul Vu, which is the Mayan bible. The Mayans believed that we are all little creators. The Popul Vu was filled with little creators of art, whether it was clay dolls they made or paintings or houses. I was fascinated with this idea.
Later, I went to Agape in LA, the one with Michael Beckwith. I learned there that we could heal and in the process, make art that expressed that healing. Rev, Michael's wife was the chorus director, as well as the musical director for the Agape International Spiritual Center and not only did the chorus travel the country (and sometimes the world), but Ricki Byers Beckwith brought musical groups to Agape every Sunday, often more than one.
The lesson I learned was "Don't try to push down your 'shadow side' or act it out by getting drunk and going home with a stranger." "Instead use that dark side to make the world a better place through your art."
These ideas may have saved my life!
Peace, love & Art,
Sherrie
Sherrie Miranda's historically based, coming of age, Adventure novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador” is about an American girl in war-torn El Salvador:
http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
Her husband made a video for her novel. He wrote the song too:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/P11Ch5c...?

Interesting high level framework around duality of life. Nonspecific in terms of steps to get there - specifically finding intelligent outlets for your shadow. Seems to have no real scholarly rigor behind it. Lots of anecdotes & quotes from literary figures to support points

One tends to project one's complexes on people, situations, things. What Jung calls shadow is that aspect of one's unconscious which contains the debris of one's inherent characteristics that gets repressed while adjusting to immediate social needs, in creating an amiable persona in other words. It is inevitable, and many a therapists today belonging to different schools may explain it less dramatically but the idea remains the same at the core. Freud may not have approved of Jung's terminology, and so do many recent analysts, but as a metaphor, as an idea of a stranger lurking within us, the symbolism intrigues me, as does many of Jung's ideas. The challenge of depth psychology is to release the gold that hides in the shadow, the creative energy that remains trapped in hazy clouds of repressions and associations. Neglect the shadow, run away from that which bothers you, and your true potential remains unrealized. Simple.

What Johnson argues, via Jung, is that:

The civilizing process, which is the brightest achievement of humankind, consists of culling out those characteristics that are dangerous to the smooth functioning of our ideals. Anyone who does not go through this process remains a "primitive" and can have no place in a cultivated society. We all are born whole but somehow the culture demands that we live out only part of our nature and refuse other parts of our inheritance. We divide the self into an ego and a shadow because our culture insists that we behave in a particular manner. Culture takes away the simple human in us, but gives us more complex and sophisticated power.

The only way shadow can manifest, unless you are conscious of it, is through projection. That is, it is neatly laid on someone or something else so we do not have to take responsibility for it. Hermann Hesse, ever a Jungian, wrote:

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

That is projection. A conscious attempt to act out the shadow is a primary thing that can keep one more aware of the inner filth. In an interview Slavoj Zizek mentioned that whenever he meets his friends, they talk crass, untoward things with one another, referencing each other's mothers and all sorts of intimate things. Once satisfied, they agree that they have given a tribute to the filth and move on to much richer and nicer conversations. I am sure he won't think of it as acting out the shadow, but in my mind I see the metaphor at work.

The book aims for a more spiritual purpose eventually. Going beyond the contradictions provided to us almost daily by the mere process of living, that which shadow feeds on, one can move towards learning to see the contradictions as paradox, as something one accepts as the fact of life without trying to choose either this or that, and an answer for an individual, if there is one, emerges from there. Think of a Zen Koan that tells you to listen to the sound of one hand clapping. Its a paradox. Jungian system of individuation has similar aims that any spiritual system has, and he is often discarded as a mystic, but there is a metaphorical richness in his ideas vis-a-vis the psyche that provides an explanatory framework for the religious way of life.

Call it wholeness, totality, union of opposites, or the world navel, it is paradox that paves the way. The fish symbolism of Christ (also known as ichthys) has two intersecting arcs, leading to an acceptance of opposites as a whole, not weighing one over the other, like yin-yang, or the Mandala representing the Self (the whole-making principle in the psyche). It is this territory which is at odds with the neurosciences and the Freudian therapy, and relies heavily on symbols (dreams, active imagination).

Off course, one learns to "not" project the shadow on their own (like paying tribute to the filth), to learn and transform from one state to another, to be more broad-minded than before, to be more accepting of the world, without knowing all the above. But it is a complete system Jung provides that keep the more imaginative ones on a path, folks who think of personality as something that can be made whole again, like alchemists looking for inner gold.

The initial idea of the book is very interesting and attracting to investigate.
However, I think this idea is not adequately discussed, but only furtherly presented from its religious (mainly Christian) aspect...
I felt that the book dind't actually come to a conclusion.