In Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, Carl Jung introduced both the shadow and the anima. Both are crucial to this section. In this excerpt Jung develops the notion of the shadow and briefly alludes to the anima. Added emphasis appears in red, and my reactions are enclosed in a box: (Note 81)

The archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego. These are the shadow, the anima, and the animus. The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the positive qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego in consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavorable role.

Though relative to the anima, the shadow was more accessible, it was years into self discovery before I realized "It's the shadow, stupid" (It's the economy, stupid). Once seen, the discovery had a liberating effect. Every action and reaction could be interpreted in terms of shadow play. This enabled me to find meaning in apparently arbitrary behavior. And what I discovered was not pleasant!

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period. . . .

Had I seen the slayer self while in pilot training, the course of my life might have been quite different. But the ego would not acknowledge that dark side of my personality. Much painstaking work remained before I could face the shadow side directly.

Experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one's own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this himself. . . .

I gradually learned that anytime I felt a strong negative (occasionally positive) tone toward another person (or object for that matter) projection was at work. This did not mean there was no basis in fact for the projection. The more justified the projection, the harder it was to recognize. Whether justified or not, the mystery was to see the suppressed part of myself behind the projection. If I listened, The Intuitive Self pointed to a repressed part of my personality.

Projections change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face. In the last analysis, therefore, they lead to an autoerotic or autistic condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d'incompletude and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusions. . . .

It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course - for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.

See what you did to me! My projecting making encouraged me to wallow in victimhood for years on end. What a debilitating, energy sapping way to go through life. What an oppressive lead shield to throw around The Intuitive Self longing to shine through. I learned that all obstacles to intuitive knowing traced their roots back to the shadow making mechanism.

One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, would belong to the realm of the shadow - that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite sex, in a man's case to a woman and vice versa. The source of projections is no longer the shadow - which is always of the same sex as the subject - but a contrasexual figure. Here we meet the animus of a woman and the anima of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections. . . .

Projections not involving women were easier to recognize and resolve. But when it came to the ways the opposite sex "victimized" me, projection took on a whole new meaning. During a six month sabbatical in a foreign country, my partner received a steady stream of petty criticism in the mail. Years later I recognized the enormous projection the woman had put up with. Throughout a constant stream of "mind fucking" rationalized my behavior.

The anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized. With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow - so far as its nature is personal. But when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil.

Yes Kali, you beautiful bitch - I love you! Recognizing the trip I laid on my partner while away on sabbatical was easier than coming to terms with the Kali archetype. Since anima projections also dealt with archetypes, I encountered greater difficulty here also. I return to the anima later in this thread.

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