The Shadow in Popular Culture

Adding to my previous post, I wanted to share a few popular modern examinations of Jung's notion of the Shadow Self...

Fight Club

Fight Club (both the book and movie) is a dark, dark, dark look at the shadow self. And yet, the gloomy tone of the film is, I think, appropriate to the actual terror that we can develop in response to our repressed selves. The unnamed protagonist of Fight Club is an everyman who spends his weekdays working a soulless job and his weekends shopping alone for apartment furniture. Carrying on this isolated modern existence has required the protagonist to repress so much of his humanity that his shadow has become a sort of monster - a hyper-violent instinctual creature. For those who haven't seen or read it, I'll stop my plot overview there. The movie is probably Brad Pitt's best ever performance.

 Black Swan

Some have called Darren Aronofsky's recent film the "female" fight club. And there might be a grain of truth to that. While Fight Club's male protagonist's deals with his repression by becoming outwardly aggressive towards others, the female protagonist of Black Swan responds to her repression by directing her frustration and hostility inward towards herself, as seen in her depression, anxiety, and self-mutilation. While, by no means do the experiences of all men and women fit into these neat categories, I do think that the gender restrictions of our culture result in many boys and girls responding to repression in these predictable ways. In any case, Black Swan is another dark, dark, dark movie. Beneath the surface of a talented dancer's sweet and controlled demeanor lies a monstrous shadow self. I would say that this was Natalie Portman's best performance yet.

video for 46 and 2 by Tool

I'll let this song (with lyrics shown in the video above) speak for itself. It was fun to go back to this song and actually understand it thanks to my recent introduction to Jung's Shadow Self.

About Schmidt spoiler alert

This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and Jack Nicholson is just amazing in the lead. Having lived his entire life in an unhappy marriage and a thankless job, Schmidt has come to think of himself as a failure. Only in this last scene does he finally come face to face with his shadow, which in Schmidt's case is his ability to have a positive impact on another human being. The film is a good illustration of how the shadow self is not all gloom and doom. It's also about finding our repressed human potential.

The Lives of Others

One more amazing film. This one includes a major character change when the protagonist breaks free of his oppressive role as a state spy and discovers his repressed humanity. One could argue, in fact, that all "character changes" involve some level of confrontation with the repressed self. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't yet seen it.



That's all for now. Coming up, I'll be revisiting my model of adult development.