During the process of treatment the dialectical discussion leads logically to a meeting between the patient and his shadow, that dark half of the psyche which we invariably get rid of by means of projection: either by burdening our neighboursin a wider or narrower sensewith all the faults which we obviously have ourselves, or by casting our sins upon a divine mediator with the aid of contritio or the milder attritio:
We know of course that without sin there is no repentance and without repentance no redeeming grace, also that without original sin the redemption of the world could never have come about; but we assiduously avoid investigating whether in this very power of evil, God might not have placed some special purpose which it is most important for us to know. One often feels driven to some such view when, like the psychotherapist, one has to deal with people who are confronted with their blackest shadow
CW12 ¶ 36TO MISS ONE'S HAPPINESS
BUT ALSO ONE'S FINAL GUILT
At any rate the doctor cannot afford to point, with a gesture of facile moral superiority, to the tablets of the law and say, “Thou shalt not.” He has to examine things objectively and weigh up possibilities, for he knows, less from religious training and education than from instinct and experience, that there is something very like a felix culpa. He knows that one can miss not only one's happiness but also one's final guilt, without which a man will never reach his wholeness. Wholeness is in fact a charisma which one can manufacture neither by art nor by cunning; one can only grow into and endure whatever its advent may bring
CW12 ¶ 36EVIL NEEDS TO BE PONDERED
JUST AS MUCH AS GOOD
Hence the psychotherapist must fix his eye not on what is done but on how it is done, because therein is decided the whole character of the doer. Evil needs to be pondered just as much as good, for good and evil are ultimately nothing but ideal extensions and abstractions of doing, and both belong to the chiaroscuro of life. In the last resort there is no good that cannot produce evil and no evil that cannot produce good
CW12 ¶ 36ENCOUNTER WITH THE
DARK HALF OF THE PERSONALITY
The encounter with the dark half of the personality, or “shadow,” comes about of its own accord in any moderately thorough treatment. This problem is as important as that of sin in the Church. The open conflict is unavoidable and painful. I have often been asked, “And what do you do about it?” I do nothing; there is nothing I can do except wait, with a certain trust in God, until, out of a conflict borne with patience and courage, there emerges the solution destinedalthough I cannot foresee itfor that particular person
CW12 ¶ 37TO PREVENT THE POWER OF EVIL FROM
BECOMING TOO POWERFUL IN THE PATIENT
Not that I am passive or inactive meanwhile: I help the patient to understand all the things that the unconscious produces during the conflict. The reader may believe me that these are no ordinary products. On the contrary, they are among the most significant things that have ever engaged my attention. Nor is the patient inactive; he must do the right thing, and do it with all his might, in order to prevent the pressure of evil from becoming too powerful in him. He needs “justification by works,” for “justification by faith” alone has remained an empty sound for him as for so many others. Faith can sometimes be a substitute for lack of experience. In these cases what is needed is real work. Christ espoused the sinner and did not condemn him
CW12 ¶ 37THERE IS ANOTHER DANGER
Apart from the moral difficulty there is another danger which is not inconsiderable and may lead to complications, particularly with individuals who are pathologically inclined. This is the fact that the contents of the personal unconscious (i.e., the shadow) are indistinguishably merged with the archetypal contents of the collective unconscious and drag the latter with them when the shadow is brought into consciousness. This may exert an uncanny influence on the conscious mind; for activated archetypes have a disagreeable effect evenor I should perhaps say, particularlyon the most cold-blooded rationalist
CW12 ¶ 38EVERYTHING THE MODERN MIND
CANNOT DEFINE IT REGARDS AS INSANE
He is afraid that the lowest form of conviction, namely superstition, is, as he thinks, forcing itself on him. But superstition properly so called only appears in such people if they are pathological, not if they can keep their balance. It then takes the form of the fear of “going mad ”for everything that the modern mind cannot define it regards as insane. It must be admitted that the archetypal contents of the collective unconscious can often assume grotesque and horrible forms in dreams and fantasies, so that even the most hard-boiled rationalist is not immune from shattering nightmares and haunting fears. The psychological elucidation of these images, which cannot be passed over in silence or blindly ignored, leads logically into the depths of religious phenomenology
CW12 ¶ 38CALMING A CONSCIOUSNESS
THAT IS ALL AT SEA
The history of religion in its widest sense (including therefore mythology, folklore, and primitive psychology) is a treasure-house of archetypal forms from which the doctor can draw helpful parallels and enlightening comparisons for the purpose of calming and clarifying a consciousness that is all at sea. It is absolutely necessary to supply these fantastic images that rise up so strange and threatening before the mind's eye, with a sort of context so as to make them more intelligible. Experience has shown that the best way to do this is by means of comparative mythological material
CW12 ¶ 38PURGE THE HORRIBLE DARKNESS
Thus an old alchemistand he a cleric!prays:(Purge the horrible darknesses of our mind, light a light for our senses!) The author of this sentence must have been undergoing the experience of the nigredo, the first stage of the work, which was felt as “melancholia ” in alchemy and corresponds to the encounter with the shadow in psychology
CW12 ¶ 41