David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
The Shadow, the Light and the Balance
By Michael J. Formica
January 06, 2009
Sometimes we need to get our hands dirty. As my esteemed blolleague Stephen A. Diamond was so good to remind us in his recent post The Psychology of Spirituality, the business of self-inquiry - whether through psychology or spirituality -- is often a messy one and not for the faint of heart. As I am one who could easily be accused of falling into the "airy-fairy-everything-is-beautiful-just-breath-and-it's-all-good" side of things, I'd like to run with some of his thoughts on the matter and add a few of my own, as well.
In earlier posts (1, 2) we discussed that one of the major failings of post-modern psychology, which began as a study of the Spirit (psyche), was its divorce from spirituality. Curiously, one of the major failings of post-modern spirituality has become its divorce from psychology. These two interdependent disciplines, by virtue of their individual imperatives and much to our disadvantage, have become juxtaposed to one another in the extreme - darkness (psychology) and light (spirituality).
Western psychology often begins with the premise that we are ill, that there is something "wrong" with us. Because of the inappropriate imposition of the medical model (see Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness) and, by association, the disease model upon psychotherapeutic practice, we start from a place that assumes we are broken things that need to be fixed, as opposed to fundamentally healthy individuals facing challenges for which we are not yet prepared.
By contrast, post-modern New Age often spirituality begins with the premise that everything is sweetness, light, grace, and angels. There is within this arena and all its attendant disciplines an almost self-conscious imperative to avoid the darkness, focusing solely on the light.
It is vitally important to understand each of these disciplines in contrast with the other. An understanding of spirituality is critical to an understanding of psychology and vice-versa, as they are not two things, but, rather, one that has fallen into the ubiquitous duality of our culture of opposition.
All things exist in balance. In order for a thing to be, its mirror (not its opposite) must also be present. The construct of duality, the splitting of things into two separate, but unrelated, elements and the dependent notion that these two things must be in opposition to one another is -- as both Buddha and Joseph Campbell were wont to point out -- a socio-mythic legacy that plagues us more than anything else. Rather than creating balance, a natural state, the construct of duality forces us into creating imbalance. Whether we are talking about spirituality or psychology we end up rejecting parts of ourselves, our community, our culture and our world.
It is quite necessary to seek the light within the darkness, and recognize the darkness within the light. This notion is at the heart of Tao, and it is a dynamic construct. A profound error that we make in the West is to view the Yin/Yang symbol as static. When discussing the origins of the Feng Shui and the I-Ching, we discover that Yin/Yang is, in fact, moving - constantly blending and balancing, not separating -- darkness and light. For us to become truly whole -- body, mind, soul and spirit, egocentrically, ethnocentrically and geocentrically - we need to pursue exactly this and get our hands dirty in the process.
To that point, what remains unexpressed within you? As I mentioned in Archetypes, Neuroses and Templates of Behavior, the Shadow is that part of ourselves that we have rejected; a perfect example being that if you identify yourself as a Democratic, the Libertarian, Republican and Independent dwell in your Shadow - but as soon as you complain about your taxes, your Republican has bled into your Democrat. Think about it.
So, what have you rejected? Consider it seriously because this question is at the core of self-inquiry; what we reject in ourselves is the engine that drives us every bit as much as that which we accept in ourselves. And what we reject, because it is not integrated into who we are, but denied, is usually what comes out sideways.
The sex addict is driven by issues of his or her own sexuality. The alcoholic or addict is running from something that s/he cannot or will not face. The gambling addict finds solace in risk and reward. The depressive fears his anger. The anxious individual fears the unknown. The narcissist hates herself. The oppressor despises the weakness in himself. From this perspective, the list is endless.
Digging in the dirt, getting our hands dirty, looking into the darkness, we find the light. We affirm who we are by virtue of whom or what we are not. This is the essence of owning ones own shadow. It is a necessary exercise that draws the disciplines of psychology and spirituality back into the same arena and, by returning balance to the construct, affords us the opportunity to bring balance to our own interior landscape, promoting our personal evolution into a whole being, maximizing our human potential
1 The Failure of Psychology and the Death of Psychotherapy, Pt. 1 | Psychology Today Blogs
2 The Failure of Psychology and the Death of Psychotherapy, Pt. 2 | Psychology Today Blogs
By Michael J. Formica
January 06, 2009
Sometimes we need to get our hands dirty. As my esteemed blolleague Stephen A. Diamond was so good to remind us in his recent post The Psychology of Spirituality, the business of self-inquiry - whether through psychology or spirituality -- is often a messy one and not for the faint of heart. As I am one who could easily be accused of falling into the "airy-fairy-everything-is-beautiful-just-breath-and-it's-all-good" side of things, I'd like to run with some of his thoughts on the matter and add a few of my own, as well.
In earlier posts (1, 2) we discussed that one of the major failings of post-modern psychology, which began as a study of the Spirit (psyche), was its divorce from spirituality. Curiously, one of the major failings of post-modern spirituality has become its divorce from psychology. These two interdependent disciplines, by virtue of their individual imperatives and much to our disadvantage, have become juxtaposed to one another in the extreme - darkness (psychology) and light (spirituality).
Western psychology often begins with the premise that we are ill, that there is something "wrong" with us. Because of the inappropriate imposition of the medical model (see Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Mental Illness) and, by association, the disease model upon psychotherapeutic practice, we start from a place that assumes we are broken things that need to be fixed, as opposed to fundamentally healthy individuals facing challenges for which we are not yet prepared.
By contrast, post-modern New Age often spirituality begins with the premise that everything is sweetness, light, grace, and angels. There is within this arena and all its attendant disciplines an almost self-conscious imperative to avoid the darkness, focusing solely on the light.
It is vitally important to understand each of these disciplines in contrast with the other. An understanding of spirituality is critical to an understanding of psychology and vice-versa, as they are not two things, but, rather, one that has fallen into the ubiquitous duality of our culture of opposition.
All things exist in balance. In order for a thing to be, its mirror (not its opposite) must also be present. The construct of duality, the splitting of things into two separate, but unrelated, elements and the dependent notion that these two things must be in opposition to one another is -- as both Buddha and Joseph Campbell were wont to point out -- a socio-mythic legacy that plagues us more than anything else. Rather than creating balance, a natural state, the construct of duality forces us into creating imbalance. Whether we are talking about spirituality or psychology we end up rejecting parts of ourselves, our community, our culture and our world.
It is quite necessary to seek the light within the darkness, and recognize the darkness within the light. This notion is at the heart of Tao, and it is a dynamic construct. A profound error that we make in the West is to view the Yin/Yang symbol as static. When discussing the origins of the Feng Shui and the I-Ching, we discover that Yin/Yang is, in fact, moving - constantly blending and balancing, not separating -- darkness and light. For us to become truly whole -- body, mind, soul and spirit, egocentrically, ethnocentrically and geocentrically - we need to pursue exactly this and get our hands dirty in the process.
To that point, what remains unexpressed within you? As I mentioned in Archetypes, Neuroses and Templates of Behavior, the Shadow is that part of ourselves that we have rejected; a perfect example being that if you identify yourself as a Democratic, the Libertarian, Republican and Independent dwell in your Shadow - but as soon as you complain about your taxes, your Republican has bled into your Democrat. Think about it.
So, what have you rejected? Consider it seriously because this question is at the core of self-inquiry; what we reject in ourselves is the engine that drives us every bit as much as that which we accept in ourselves. And what we reject, because it is not integrated into who we are, but denied, is usually what comes out sideways.
The sex addict is driven by issues of his or her own sexuality. The alcoholic or addict is running from something that s/he cannot or will not face. The gambling addict finds solace in risk and reward. The depressive fears his anger. The anxious individual fears the unknown. The narcissist hates herself. The oppressor despises the weakness in himself. From this perspective, the list is endless.
Digging in the dirt, getting our hands dirty, looking into the darkness, we find the light. We affirm who we are by virtue of whom or what we are not. This is the essence of owning ones own shadow. It is a necessary exercise that draws the disciplines of psychology and spirituality back into the same arena and, by returning balance to the construct, affords us the opportunity to bring balance to our own interior landscape, promoting our personal evolution into a whole being, maximizing our human potential
1 The Failure of Psychology and the Death of Psychotherapy, Pt. 1 | Psychology Today Blogs
2 The Failure of Psychology and the Death of Psychotherapy, Pt. 2 | Psychology Today Blogs
