What is the Human Shadow?
It’s the pot calling the kettle black. It’s people living in glass houses who throw stones. It’s hypocrisy. It’s the speck I see in your eye while I can’t see the log in my own eye. It’s a knee-jerk, unconscious attempt to hide our own mistakes and flaws.
Every Ego develops a Shadow as it goes through life. It’s where we keep the things we don’t like about ourselves, the things we don’t want others to know about us. A Human Shadow refers to the repressed, un-lived side of a normal, every day Human Ego.
And while it sounds convenient to simply ignore the things we don’t like about ourselves, in practice it’s deadly. Because when we just can’t face our own stuff — our own greed or violence or bigotry or fears or insecurities — we’ll see our own stuff on someone else’s face. It’s called projection. It’s starts in denial and it ends in blame. We project the things we don’t want to admit about ourselves onto other people. Then we can hate those other people without having to change a thing personally. I don’t have a bad temper, you &#@*!!&%! asshole! You have a terrible temper!
Imagine a movie projector. Your brain is the little machine up in back. You’re creating the image, the image is actually coming from inside your own head, but the other person is the big screen down in front, the other person is the only place where you can actually see that image. Projection.
Denial, projection and blame are attempts by an Ego to protect itself, to avoid change, to hide its own Shadow.
And the dire news is, we don’t just perform this subtle mental trick personally. We also do it collectively. Whole cultures cast Shadows.
As history has shown over and over again, when enough people deny the same qualities in themselves and then project those qualities out onto other groups of people, something really nasty occurs. Like witch burning crazes, or exterminations of native populations, or slavery, or genocide, or civil wars, or Holocausts.
Massive acts of evil simply could not be perpetrated without massive amounts of denial, projection and blame.
About The Book
This website offers an award-winning book for free, Shadow in the USA, because we want to promote a better understanding of the Human Shadow. We’re not selling anything. There are no fees to pay, or groups to join. We think this information is valuable, so we’re passing it on. If you find it valuable, we hope you’ll do the same. Those in a hurry can choose “What is the Human Shadow?” which is an in-depth definition. Those who’d rather listen can download the podcast. Book, definition and podcast are all available to read, download, listen to, print up, or otherwise pass on to others. And the pdfs are full of Bob Hobbs’ wonderful illustrations.
But… the what? The Human Shadow? Never heard of it, you say? But you have heard of it. “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!” “That’s the pot calling the kettle black!” Even if we don’t call it the Human Shadow, we all know something, vaguely, about how denial, projection and blame work. What we haven’t yet come to grips with is how prevalent and malevolent this simple ego defense mechanism has become.
At personal levels (me versus you), state levels (Blue State versus Red State), national levels (war and terrorism), and global levels (climate change and ecological damage), we waste most of our time and intelligence blaming others, rather than using our time and intelligence to correct problems. Denial-Projection-Blame. Denial-Projection-Blame. We get caught in vicious, downward spirals of finger pointing that get us nowhere, and solve nothing.
So let’s do what we can about that. Let’s start talking about denial, projection and blame. Let’s start talking about how the Human Shadow works.
READ the definition or the book. LISTEN to the podcast.
If you find them helpful, FORWARD them on. PRINT them up. GIVE them away.
BECAUSE WE’RE NOT JUST RUNNING OUT OF TIME.
WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF WORLD.
“The task of confronting the brutal, destructive elements of the Shadow has become the inescapable destiny of our species. If we fail, we cannot hope to survive.”
–John A. Sanford, PhD, analytical psychologist and Episcopalian priest
READ. SHARE. DISCUSS.
2009 BRONZE MEDAL, Independent Publisher Book Awards, Self-Help
2010 SILVER MEDAL, Young Voices Foundation Book Awards, Inspirational/Spiritual
