Is it the 'end' of history?

[Sculptor1]

I think Sculpt got the joke.

Thigh slappingly amusing be it too.
Forsooth twas a great jest.
Thou shalt find me most grateful for such further jolities be them forthcoming, sirah!

[JackDaydream]

@Belindi

Jung was writing with specific reference to individual psychology, based on his clinical work in psychoanalysis, but he did apply this to it being the basis of groups and nations too. He argued that the ideal of perfection had been stressed with the image of Christ as perfection. The idea of Christ as perfect is based on his lack of any sin. Jung stressed how he was presented as a role model for human beings to follow. He argued that people fall short of this due to the problem of the shadow.

The key idea which is relevant to the thread discussion is that he was arguing that the repressed aspects of the personality, the 'shadow' aspect, which are the attributes which are the parts of the self which are discouraged in socialisation. He describes it in the following way:'The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly- for instance, inferior traits of character and other incompatible tendencies.' Since everyone has a shadow, the problem exists as a collective phenomenon.

[JackDaydream]

@Belindi

I just wish to add a brief clarification on the political context. Jung was working as a therapist in the context of Nazi Germany. He has been criticised by some thinkers for not speaking out at the time against the Nazis, but that aside, he witnessed the rise of destructiveness prior to him writing his, 'Answer to Job', and he was conscious of the rise of nuclear warfare. Almost all people today have been born into a world in which mass destruction of civilisation could occur that it is almost something which is taken for granted.

[Belindi]

@Belindi

Jung was writing with specific reference to individual psychology, based on his clinical work in psychoanalysis, but he did apply this to it being the basis of groups and nations too. He argued that the ideal of perfection had been stressed with the image of Christ as perfection. The idea of Christ as perfect is based on his lack of any sin. Jung stressed how he was presented as a role model for human beings to follow. He argued that people fall short of this due to the problem of the shadow.

The key idea which is relevant to the thread discussion is that he was arguing that the repressed aspects of the personality, the 'shadow' aspect, which are the attributes which are the parts of the self which are discouraged in socialisation. He describes it in the following way:'The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly- for instance, inferior traits of character and other incompatible tendencies.' Since everyone has a shadow, the problem exists as a collective phenomenon.

Jack , thank you very much for your interesting reply. I must say, I am happier with the id (Freud) than I am with the shadow(Jung). I note you write "inferior traits of character and other incompatible tendencies" to describe the shadow. I recognise those in myself, but I know these are cultural defects and feelings of guilt help nobody. My id is a much jollier idea.

[JackDaydream]

I definitely don't wish to spoil your 'jolier idea' of the id in preference for Jung's notion of the shadow, but wish to point out that the idea of the id and the shadow are not necessarily parallel. That is because Freud and Jung's model are so radically different from each other. Thinking of the end of history, from a Freudian perspective, I would frame that in his emphasis on the battle between the life and death instincts, Eros and Thanatos.

I also wish to point to one particular writer on the shadow who makes the concept appear less negative in nature. In 'Dreaming and Darkness', Charlie Morley(2017) speaks of the shadow as having both negative and positive attributes. The negative will include

[JackDaydream]

@Belindi

(My entry began above but I accidentally knocked the device and it submitted it prematurely. Please see above post for comment on Jung and Freud, and, here, I will write the paragraph I had began on a possible interpretation of the shadow).

I wish to point to one particular writer on the shadow who makes the concept appear less negative in nature. In 'Dreaming and Darkness', Charlie Morley(2017) speaks of the shadow as having both negative and positive attributes. The negative would include the ones which contribute to war and environmental destruction. But, he sees it as incorporating a whole range of 'unintegrated energy, and until we learn how to tap into this energy and transmute its power, we will never become a fully awakened human being.' He goes on to speak of the 'golden shadow'.

Morley says:
'The golden shadow'(often called the positive shadow) is made up of our hidden talents, our blinding beauty and our unfulfilled potential. It contains our intuition, our creativity, childlike vitality and spiritual power. Just as the dark shadow is made up of all the parts that we fear may lead to rejection, the golden shadow is made of all the bright, brilliant and magnificent parts of ourselves that we fear may be too great, too awesome or too challenging to reveal to others.'