Book Review

In psychology, the dark side of human nature is often described as the alter ego, the id, or the lower self. The great Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called it the "shadow." By shadow, he meant the negative side of the personality, the sum total of all those unpleasant qualities that we would prefer to hide.

While Carl Jung coined the term "the shadow," the idea of a dark side of human nature dates back to antiquity and has figured in some of our most famous stories and myths, from the dark brother in the Bible to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

For psychotherapist Connie Zweig, the shadow represents one of the most important yet least understood aspects of human nature. We all have a shadow, she says. The challenge is to meet it face-to-face. Unless we come to terms with our own dark side, she says, we're condemned to be its victim.

Connie Zweig is the author of Romancing the Shadow. She has also edited a bestselling anthology on the subject called Meeting the Shadow. Zweig is the founder of the Institute for Shadow-Work and Spiritual Psychotherapy in Los Angeles.

We spend the first half of our lives putting everything into the bag and the second half pulling it out. Everything that is in our conscious awareness is in the light. But everything of substance which stands in the light whether it's a tree or an idea also casts a shadow. And that which stands in the darkness is outside of our awareness.

As Jung saw it, the shadow operated at several levels. First, there is the part of the mind that is outside of our awareness. He called this the personal unconscious or personal shadow. That is the conditioned part of us that we acquire from our experiences in our childhood when that which is unacceptable, as determined by the adults around us, is cast into shadow. It may be sadness or sexual curiosity. Or it may be our creative dreams and desires. That's personal shadow. But there is another level as well. Jung also talked about the "collective unconscious" or the "archetypal shadow."

The personal shadow is that part of us that erupts spontaneously and unexpectedly when we do something self-destructive or something that is hurtful to someone else. Afterwards, we know it's been around because we feel humiliated, ashamed, and guilty.

For example, one of Zweig's patients a young woman in her 20s has had a series of brief relationships in which she very quickly has unprotected sex with men she does not know. She feels so devastated afterwards, filled with shock and self-hatred. She says, "How could he? He thought him saw this the last time. He thought he'd never do it again. He thought him really understood why he was doing it, and that it would never happen again. And here he am. He can't believe it." This is her shadow her sexual shadow is acting out in ways that are bringing her terrible pain and grief.

He would say the personal shadow ...