Integrating the Shadow

There's an uneasiness, even a slight recoil we experience in the company of someone who is just a little too happy. We can't help but suspect their inauthenticity because we know what it means to be human.

To be human is to be subject to all kinds of unseemly emotions, like anger and anxiousness and envy and vanity. Carl Jung's shorthand for this dimension of human psychology was "the shadow." He observed that people are generally less good than they imagine or want themselves to be. As part of their effort to maintain a prosocial brand, they tamp down and suppress the darker aspects of their character, often in easily detectable ways.

But there are trade-offs with such an approach. The shadow, while potentially destructive, can be a profound force for good. Many of the most admired people — whether it's Steve Jobs or Eleanor Roosevelt — found ways to embrace and ultimately integrate their shadows.

The writer Robert Greene, for example, is quite deliberate about this. For him, and surprisingly for many other authors, the act of writing is physically and mentally exhausting. Greene has come to see the importance of having an energy source that sparks and sustains his best work.

His most dependable source is anger. He primes himself to write by sifting through an extensive array of notes. Then he waits. He waits for a wave of anger to build. When he eventually sees it coming, he redirects his focus and purposefully harnesses a mysterious power.? ?

There is wisdom in that process. To suppress the shadow is to strangle the subconscious, and the subconscious mind is far richer and more creative than our conscious self. It's the deepest source of our needs, desires, and ambitions. It's an ocean of intuition that feeds a creek of intention, and we all have access to the great blue yonder within.

Tackling big and seemingly intractable problems requires an extreme level of motivation and commitment. It's very difficult to summon the necessary life force without recruiting our demons and giving them a higher calling. But tribalism can be manifested as teamwork. Aggression can be channelled into achievement. A toxin can become tonic.

This can happen at scale, too. LinkedIn is now an $18 billion dollar company that creates economic opportunity for a billion members in more than 200 countries. That's the 20-year watermark of a radical aspiration. It's the exquisite balance of hell-bent resolve and heaven-sent responsibility.?

This is what it means to integrate the shadow. This is what it means to become a more complete human being.