The Shadow

This therapist Ann Shulgin details her shadow work method:

• Psychotherapist Carl Jung coined the phrase to describe the parts of our psyche that our conscious mind cannot accept
• In dreams, visions, and imagination, Shadow is usually represented by a monster in the basement; she says always an animal (ape, big cat, once an octopus)
• Recommends Connie Zweig's and Robert Johnson's books on Shadow
• Jungians recommend simply viewing it; she guides people to step into it, and look out into the world through its eyes; this results in the instant disappearance of fear
• Question on becoming identified with the shadow: she says only one case she knows of, Giger the dark artist, preferred to stay in his shadow, and found great success and happiness (!)

Incredibly detailed video interviews with Connie Zweig:  http://conniezweig.com/booksvideos/meeting-the-shadow/

• Jung's Shadow concept was much broader than Freud's, it included *anything* that was rejected by conscious/ego
• Foodie
• Put a face to shadow behaviour; case of woman who was addicted to ice cream
• Asked to identify the thought, the emotion, and the physical sensation that arises when the shadow behaviour arises
• Asked to now picture the entity that represents these, and name it
• Now there can be a dialog with this entity ("Foodie" the giant mouth)
• Shadow causing us to procrastinate at work; behavioural changes are one approach, but 
• Shadow regarding wheat allergy..."Shadow work with my relationship with my mother"...  "Her addiction became my allergy"... 
• Did shadow work with Athena... who symbolized her pre-relationship state...  to find her appropriate place in the psyche
• "There is a whole committee inside of each of us [that we bring to a marriage]"... "Who is the shadow figure that is creating the repetitive behaviour"
• Marriage often involves hiding issues away.  But honouring our own, and then our partners shadows, can result in a deeper marriage

Part 2

• "Diamonic" vs Demonic shadow
• Shadow
• We encounter shadow in our projections... Instant judgements we make on people, come from shadow; we are attributing aspects of ourselves onto them
• Why would we do that?  Because these parts of ourselves want to be known, but we wont let them, so they come to us through other people that we judge.  Intense emotional response indicates projection.
• Trixie
• Woman who judged another for being a flirt; she was guided to find that within her, she named her Trixie
• Woman integrated some (milder) aspect of Trixie into herself, and her strong emotional response subsided
• Projection vs Legitimate aversion
• Is emotional response commesurate to what is observed?
• Seeing a parent beat a child: legitimate emotional response against the parent
• Seeing someone with a particular style: projection
• Book: Robert Bly's Little Book on the Shadow
• Intensely negative feelings about businessmen and bankers
• Wrote a poem about who the banker and businessmen are in him
• Money
• Attitudes about money can go into shadow if we reject that from our parents
• Way of differentiating from family may include pushing money into shadow
• "What is blocking me from money?" ... her mother said to her "Making money you wont go to heaven" ... this kept her enslaved to be poor
• Money is now more of a taboo than sex; guilt about too much money
• "Money" chakra is even lower/deeper than sex chakra
• Shame and guilt are like arrows pointing into the shadow
• Therapy
• Begin to explore what comes up for people having more money, having less money, the anxieties, insecurities
• We begin to form a shadow character: "Im not worthy of being rich".. or .. "If I am rich someone has to be poor"... or ... "my father only cared about moeny" ... and where in the body is that carried, what physical sensation goes with it?  If they imagine turning towards money, what character
• Concept from James Hillman: personification the unconscious material
• Trace the personal roots of that shadow figure in your personal history; understand what need that message fulfilled at the time; what was it trying to protect you from?  Trying for something you couldnt get?  From being called names by some people?  There may be archetypal/mythological level (Hermes, Midas).  May find there is a story about money in your life, and we are ready to change it.  Once we understand it we can allow it to change.
• Shadow figure always originally forms as a protector;  only later it becomes a saboteur
• Money and Power are interwoven; imbalance between money in a couple can lead to power shadow, control; Sex can be tied in as well, there is a bargain made at some level sex<->money, and exploring that can bring this to light
• Levels of Shadow
• Individual shadow is formed in context of family shadow
• Family shadow formed in cultural shadow
• Different countries have different shadows
• If you get angry at your partner a lot, the work is not to just accept that; the work is to be aware of the pattern, personify the Rager, and find something else to do with that energy;  exercise? talking?  something else?
• Some people with criticize the spouse for attention, or they want space/distance of their own, or they are avoiding some discomfort somewhere else
• If you meet the shadows needs directly, you can avoid it coming up indirectly.
• Part of understanding our shadow is understanding our own needs.
• Recurring argument with your spouse; saying those things that really hurt them; this is shadow
• From her other interviews on her site:
• Someone with a strong criticizing streak (the "Judge"), realized their father was that way when she was young; she absorbed it from him
• the Judge protected her when young, but later in life she was unable to find intimacy
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