RE: Psychology Addict # 50 | Why Good People Do Evil Things?
Excellent post, and great feedback from your readers!
I was struck by this: I wondered why I liked this woman so little. And I think ... I recognize myself in this woman. I was just reading Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side:
The “shadow” is a concept first coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung that describes those aspects of the personality that we choose to reject and repress. For one reason or another, we all have parts of ourselves that we don’t like—or that we think society won’t like—so we push those parts down into our unconscious psyches. It is this collection of repressed aspects of our identity that Jung referred to as our shadow.
If you’re one of those people who generally loves who they are, you might be wondering whether this is true of you. “I don’t reject myself,” you might be thinking. “I love everything about me.”
However, the problem is that you’re not necessarily aware of those parts of your personality that you reject. According to Jung’s theory, we distance ourselves psychologically from those behaviors, emotions, and thoughts that we find dangerous.
So I'm repressing my inner tyrant, bully, bureaucrat, rule-enforcing autocrat?
I guess, your reply aimed at Abigail? but as you quoted me, I feel talked to :)
Yes, I have known the "shadow" Jung called that for a very long time, actually since my youth, when my good friend once mentioned that what we reject only annoys us so much because we recognized ourselves in it. Jung is right if he thought that was dangerous, because it is probably one of the most difficult insights someone dares to admit. For me, anger is a great indicator when I get terribly upset about another person in social interaction. Then I say to myself as a rule: If it upsets you so much, what does it have to do with you? Basically, something that we don't know or haven't experienced can't really excite us. You cannot judge the taste of bananas, nor be angry or delighted if you have never eaten bananas. So it is always an anchor for me to take a step back and reflect on myself when my feelings are aroused and I could then indulge and say to myself: "Oh well, I only have "bananas" :) Laugh!
To answer your last question: Yes, you do :D, we all do that. Good to know, yes?