Doors Close, Windows Open

In the Shadow

"Only the shallow know themselves." Oscar Wilde

"Alright. Let's dive into The Undiscovered Self starting with the first chapter, The Plight of the Individual in Modern Society.  What is this plight of which he speaks?"

A statuesque Black woman raised her hand, for the first time as I recalled.  "Yes, Shanice. Please," said Dr. Soren.

"The plight of modern man, as Jung called it, is having our individuality erased in the age of totalitarian societies.  If we put this into the perspective of the late 1950's, when he wrote this book, he was likely responding to what he'd witnessed in Germany during World War 2, as well as what was going on in communist Russia.  Maybe even what he saw happening in the US."

"Yes, good analysis," Dr. Soren said. "What else?"

She continued, "Another aspect of the plight, which probably has been the human plight throughout time, is that people do not know themselves.  On page five, Jung writes,

Most people confuse 'self-knowledge' with knowledge of their conscious ego-personalities.  Anyone who has any ego-consciousness at all takes it for granted that he knows himself.  But the ego knows only own contents, not the unconscious and its contents.  People measure their self-knowledge by what the average person in their social environment knows of himself, but not by the real psychic facts which are for the most part hidden from them.

"What do you make of that?" asked Dr. Soren.

"I believe he's saying that people think they know more about themselves than they really do.  Dr. Jung explained that people live inside of bodies that they don't fully understand.  We are closer to our bodies than anyone else but for the most part, have little idea how the body works. Jung writes that it takes special scientific knowledge to really know the body.  My husband is a medical resident.  It has taken years of study for him to learn the mechanics of the body.  Even with all those years of education, the body is still a mystery in many ways." She paused for a moment.  Adam's hand went up, but before Dr. Soren could call on him, Shanice continued.

"Jung is saying that our psyches and minds are much the same.  We think we know our minds, because we live so close to our minds.  But in truth, we know only the most superficial layers of our mental functioning.  And even that is illusory because most of what we consider to be self-knowledge is based on social factors.  That is, how we've interpreted and coded experience based on the perceptual filters that have evolved in us from birth forward.  Our schools, families, cultures, geographies, and belief structures converge to shade what we see. We are all looking at life through glasses, so to speak, tinted by our life experiences. The plight of the modern man, in this light, is not much different than the plight of humans through time.  We don't know ourselves.  Worse than not knowing ourselves, we think we know more than we do."

"Very perceptive, Shanice.  Now tell me.  What energized you to speak on this?"

Shanice looked down at her desk.  She began taping her right index finger on the desk.  She would answer, but only after she had carefully crafted a response first.  The soccer players shouted to each other.  Every few seconds, the thud of a foot to leather ball punctuated the outlying shouts.  Their sounds filled the void left by the heavy quiet in our classroom. Shanice to exhaled, cleared her throat, and spoke.

"My mother committed suicide last year.  On the surface, she had it together.  She was active in her church, worked as a librarian, and lived what most considered a quiet, pious life.  But that starched, manicured, and perfectly groomed exterior was a thin skin holding in an ocean of darkness."  Shanice took a few breaths before continuing.