Unlocking the Hidden Power in the Shadow: Jung, Batman, Hitchcock & Hegel
To evolve as people, Jung taught that we must discover the treasures buried in our unconscious – those underdeveloped or repressed parts of ourselves that long to be recognised.
Full of hidden powers, the shadow betrays itself through things like:
Disowned emotions like fear or anger
Neuroses, anxiety, and depression
The reverse side of the values that our cultures reinforced – their shadow sides
Combine these disowned characters and it's as if each of us has a shadow being – a direct inverse of ourself who embodies all that we don't.
Parallels in story
Jung's concept of the shadow relates to binary opposition – a common theme in storytelling.
Binary opposition refers to the use of contrasting pairs of concepts (good vs evil, order vs chaos, life vs death, etc) to drive conflict and structure narratives.
Batman and the Joker in The Dark Knight is a cliché example of binary opposition because it's so clear:
Batman believes in justice, rules, and the idea that society can function under a moral code. He operates as a vigilante but ultimately aims to uphold order in Gotham City by fighting crime within a framework of ethics – he refuses to kill and trusts in the system, flawed as it may be.
The Joker embodies anarchic chaos, seeking to expose humanity's fragility and hypocrisy. He doesn't desire money or power – his goal is purely to disrupt social order and prove that people, when pushed, will abandon their morals and descend into chaos.
The conflict between Batman and the Joker represents a wider thematic conflict between order and chaos.
The film’s conflict is primarily external, but Jungian psychology is interested in how these opposites function internally.
Hegelian dialectics
We can understand binary oppositions in story further through the lens of Hegelian dialectics – a philosophical framework developed by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
In Hegel's framework, progress and understanding emerge from the interaction of opposites.
First, the thesis (an initial idea or force) meets its antithesis (an opposing idea or force), which creates conflict.
The conflict leads to a synthesis that integrates both elements into a higher understanding, transcending the limits of thesis and antithesis.
The synthesis isn't necessarily a resolution of the conflict, but a reshaping and evolution of both elements into a new state of being.
Binary opposition and Hegel’s dialectics show us that progress requires engaging with antagonising forces in order to move beyond a current state, and aligns with Jung’s teachings how knowing one’s shadow leads to personal transformation.
Your film is only as good as your antagonist
Hitchcock supposedly remarked, 'The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.'
Villains drive conflict, make the hero's journey more compelling, and demand a more drastic need for change.
Applied through a Jungian framework, Hitchcock’s insistence on a good villain implies that life is sterile when shadow elements are repressed.
But life is far more complex than film, and humans far more complex than characters.
When the shadow is ignored, it's more likely to try and assert itself for recognition, causing neuroses and painful internal conflicts.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great literary representation of how a respectable physician suppresses his dark side until it becomes strong enough to create a new destructive personality.
Again, this emphasises the importance of self-knowledge.
Undiscovered reservoirs of vitality lie in the shadow
For Jung, there are vast, undiscovered reservoirs of vitality buried in the shadow
He taught that the more we can become aware of shadow elements through getting to know our unconscious, the more of this vitality we can integrate into our conscious being.
Look for the messages your unconscious is sending you and seek out the reverse qualities that make up your shadow being.
Active imagination gives a voice to those characteristics, and functions in the same way as Hegel's dialectic.
It places thesis against antithesis in a conflict that will lead to some synthesis of the two. And while the synthesis will not necessarily be a resolution, it will bring you to some third thing – a new place from which you can begin the practice again for a process of gradual but constant evolution.
It may be that the more you listen to and come to know of your shadow, the more it can transform you.