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What do we know about our Shadow? About what is repressed, hidden, but continues to live inside us, controlling our speech and actions? We will talk with psychologist Sasha Makhova about temptations, secret passions and the film «Chocolate». And we will also find out what practice helps to find your suppressed desires.
Open a chocolate bar on the eve of Lent in a God-fearing Catholic province? This is exactly what Vienne Rocher, the heroine of Juliette Binoche, does in the movie «Chocolate». She also does not go to church and is friends with the gypsies, against whom the local mayor distributes leaflets under the auspices of the fight against immorality. She even starts an affair with one of the nomads. In general, in every possible way it challenges the old foundations and annoys the orthodox.
What does Jung have to do with it, you ask?
A fight with a shadow
The whole atmosphere in the city seems to have been created to combat living human needs. The mayor of the city starves himself, but secretly from the servants greedily sniffs jam, and the local widow is still in mourning for her husband who died in the First World War, although the film takes place in the 1950s. Residents of the city seem to resist themselves and expect the same from others.
A bit of theory. Who is this Shadow?
The founder of the Shadow theory was the psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung. He defined it as an autonomous part of the personality, repressed into the subconscious.
Simply put, the Shadow is such manifestations and desires that we do not recognize in ourselves. It’s us that we don’t consciously choose. The shadow makes itself felt when the professor’s daughter falls in love with an experienced womanizer, and the priest notices that he involuntarily looks at the parishioner’s chest.
The shadow lives in the subconscious and sends its messages through erotic dreams and nightmares. This is what we don’t want to be. She is where “the devil beguiled” and “I don’t understand how this could happen to me.” It often manifests itself in judging others. For example, when a 40+ lady yearning for male attention talks about high morality and hates «these women in short skirts.»
A ticket for deportation to the Shadow can be obtained not only by lust or aggression, but also by love with tenderness, if for some reason they do not pass ethical censorship (forbidden relationships, unequal social status of lovers). Love was born, but for moral reasons it was crushed in the cradle of the subconscious.
More about Judgment
As a rule, any fierce struggle — with fallen women, debauchery or conditional «chocolate», as in the film — is primarily a struggle with oneself. A good example is people who are exhausted by a diet, who hate “fat and eating” and try to suppress hunger in themselves with the power of thought.
Dark History
Long before Jung, philosophers and theologians wrote about the Shadow. First, as about the cohabitation of an animal and a human in one organism (recall, for example, the minotaur or the Egyptian gods with the heads of animals). Then as about the divine and the devil (biblical stories).
And later, as about the psychological duality in the consciousness and subconsciousness of a person (recall Stevenson’s famous story about Dr. Jekyll and his shadow side, Mr. Hyde).
Beckon your shadow
Candies, cakes, and fudges become Shadow’s «bait». Thanks to Vienna and her chocolate, the Shadow is brought to light.
Tired spouses suddenly remember what passion is, a downtrodden wife leaves her tyrant husband and rejoices in freedom, and a lonely elderly gentleman realizes that he is in love with that very widow. One by one, the residents go to confession by tasting desserts at the new patisserie. Chocolate seems to be the cure for pleasure-hungry souls.
In my opinion, the film «Chocolate» is a wonderful illustration of what happens to people and societies when the suppression of desires becomes a cult and a moral norm. Losing control over the situation, the mayor tries to turn the residents against the main character, talking about how it hurts him to look at her illegitimate daughter. In desperation, he climbs into her cafe to trample and chop all the goods with a knife, but the Shadow takes his toll. The next morning, he is found gorged on sweets, having gone unconscious.
The plot demonstrates how sooner or later repressed desires make themselves felt. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about cinema or life.
Workshop. Working with the Shadow
What to do if you notice a habit of suppressing desires and denying some of your manifestations? I suggest that you do a little exercise that will help you better understand yourself and allow you to continue getting to know your Shadow. If necessary, you can ask someone you trust to help you with this, or you can do it yourself using pen and paper.
- Imagine a person who really annoys you.
- Describe his character in detail.
- Answer the question: what exactly in it annoys you so much?
- Now put yourself in his place. Imagine: what does it feel like to be one? Talk like him? Act like him? How does he move?
- Ask him why he became the way he was before.
- Now answer the question: how can his qualities be useful in life? How can they help and how can they hinder?
- Describe how your feelings have changed.
December is the month of summing up. Perhaps now is the time to turn to your repressed desires and change your life for the better. Do not forget that any part of you has the right to life and realization. Moreover, it is in it that a huge creative potential and strength for new achievements are hidden.