One of the most famous stories about the shadow is Robert Louis Steven's Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde.  The pictures below are from an early movie based on the classic novel.  Like Dr. Jekyll, the more we ignore our shadow, the greater it's autonomous powers become. Eventually, like Mr. Hyde, the shadow assumes a separate life and identity of its own. Like the negative of a photograph, the shadow is our undeveloped side. Because it is less differentiated, the shadow has a more primitive and instinctual nature. Note the sinister monkey like quality of the Mr. Hyde movie still.

"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." -- Jung,  Aion, CW 9, Part II, P.14

When a nation's shadow is not recognized by it's people, it is projected upon a particular race, ethnic group, religious or political party. Often a minority group becomes the black sheep or scapegoat for the larger nation's problems: its prejudices, bias and fears. Once a blame frame is created by a nation, 'the enemy' is inevitably identified with the very shadow qualities the nation has denied and disowned through projection. 

SHADOW: GERMANY--A LESSON FROM HISTORY

Below are some key examples of collective projection from WWII Germany :

FAR LEFT--Nazi movie poster for Veit Harlan film depicting "...the decadent Jew" the cir 1940, CENTER LEFT--This is the cover of a SS propaganda booklet labeled Der Untermensch or The Subhuman.  Depicted here are the faces of soviet prisoners of war which the pamphlet states are "...racially inferior, rendered stupid, provided with blinkers, proletarianized, and made into machines."  CENTER--1938 Nazi art cover called "Degenerate Music" showing an American jazz musician. Note the connection between the monkey aspect here and Mr. Hyde above.  RIGHT--1927 Nazi spoof of the German Weissenhof Housing Complex depicting it as an Arab Village. Moslems were also put into the "racially inferior" category. 

THE SHADOW AND AMERICA

America has had a long history of collective projection. Historically three main groups stand out in this area: Native Americans, Afro-Americans and Japanese Americans. The latest group to be projected upon are Moslem Americans. In the near future we will have a segment on slavery and Afro-Americans.

NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS 

 

One of the first groups to be the target of America's projected shadow were the indigenous Indians tribes. Subject of every kind of abuse and humiliation from the beginning of their relationship with the white man from the 17th century onward, it finally culminated in the forced resettlement of native Americans into reservations. Perhaps the most tragic episode (there were many) was the forced resettlement of the Cherokee nation in 1838. Compelled to leave their ancestral homeland in northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee--17,000 Cherokee journeyed 1000 miles to a reservation in Oklahoma. Many died--about one quarter or 4000--of disease, cold and hunger along the way.   The following paintings are all by Cherokee artists. The LEFT painting depicts the U.S. army forcing Cherokees out of their homes. The MIDDLE picture by Echo Hawk depicts travel through Kentucky.  The painting by Murv Jacob--RIGHT--depicts Cherokees fighting the cold and elements in Illinois.

JAPANESE-AMERICANS AND WORLD WAR II   

In the spring of 1942 more than a 100,000 residents of Japanese ancestry were evicted  from their homes and businesses. They were sent on special trains to remote relocation centers for the remainder of the war. The following photographs were taken by news correspondent Howard Clifford: 

The LEFT picture is of two Japanese American children in Oakland, CA  going to the Camp Harmony in Puyallup, Seattle. They wear ID tags. The CENTER picture is a group saying goodbye as they prepare to leave for Camp Harmony and the RIGHT picture shows the camp itself. 

A good source of information on this subject is to be found at the University of Washington's Link: http://lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/default.htm

SHADOW: THE SCAPEGOAT

SHADOW: WAR AND GENOCIDE

The same unconscious pattern is at work with the collective shadow. For the psychologically ignorant, the answer is always the same--get rid of the 'carrier' of the problem. Put them in jails, concentration camps or just kill them. Civil and World Wars, which Jung called the outbreak of "psychic epidemics" meaning a kind of collective psychoses are examples of the Collective Shadow.

The 20th century is littered with the remains of vast human scapegoating: the Armenian genocide of WW1--LEFT picture, Concentration Camp ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau CENTER image and RIGHT--'The Killing Fields' in Cambodia to name a few. 

"...the keynote was struck for the second half of the Christian aeon (1000-2000 A.D.) after the myth of the fall of the angels had already explained that these fallen angels had taught men a dangerous knowledge of science and the arts. What would these old storytellers have to say about Hiroshima?"--Jung  

The recent sex scandals in the Catholic Church are but another episode in the gap between it's outer political persona and it's inner denied shadow side. For example, statistics released recently in Boston by the Attorney General indicate that more than a 1000 people were molested over a six decade period. The schism that historically existed between the church and its adversary's (e.g. other religious denominations) has now been deeply internalized.

We believe that an inner psychological Reformation is needed if the Papacy is going to survive. Yet bringing the shadow into consciousness is only the first step in the long journey toward some kind of integration. Behind the carefully crafted persona of the modern priesthood exists some of the secret passions of the instinctual Roman world. Pedophile priests are but personifications of the church's historical sexual complex--homosexuals and women being the usual projectiles. (The Vatican recently reaffirmed it's historical stance against homosexuality). The earthy Roman pagan temples over which the Vatican is built are not only the forgotten cornerstones; they have been the focal point of fanatical scapegoating over the centuries.

Among the many scapegoats were: Arabs as part of the bloody crusades, religious wars of persecution against the Cathars, who in the picture LEFT are being tortured by the Inquisition. Women were also scapegoated and  burnt as witches (16th century German Woodcut).  The most famous person burnt as a witch was Joan of Arc--see movie still below--second picture. In our book we refer to the witch hunts as the Holocaust Of Eros since so many women (hundreds of thousands--perhaps millions) were persecuted and killed. The third picture below shows three unidentified women being burnt at the stake. 

The Max Ernst painting on the right entitled,  "The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus..." is an interesting solution to the Christian problem. Here Eros, in the form of the Virgin is above and the patriarchal Christian Logos as the infant Jesus is below--a psychological reversal of perspective. The church's shadow has always been the suppressed aspect of Eros.

The photographs LEFT and CENTER by Natasha Frost show gang members doing hand signals. One is wearing a black suicide glove  and throwing the sign of the GDs or Gangster Disciples. The black glove is for handling guns without leaving fingerprints. The CENTER photo shows a Kings gang member demonstrating their sign--a crown.  The Bloods gang member--RIGHT--in Los Angeles is identifiable by his red shirt and cap. The red and black square patterns remind us that blood and death are close companions in his world.