Shadow Self

Mary Midgley (a Religious Studies Scholar) says that when most people commit an “evil,” it is against their better self. The evil exists in this “shadow self” that we like to deny exists and pretend doesn’t. It might not tell us (hopefully) to go murdering people, but it might tell us to speed on the freeway when we don’t think there are CHP around, or something of that nature. We like to deny that this shadow is a portion of our personality.

Jung: “Painful though it is, this [unwelcome self-knowledge] is in itself a gain– for what is inferior or even worthless belongs to me as my shadow and gives me substance and mass. How can I be substantial if I fail to cast a shadow? I must have a dark side if I am to be whole; and inasmuch as I become conscious of my shadow I also remember that I am a human being like any other.”