Charles Awwad

Asher Sund, Ph.D.

English V01A
6/25/15
Essay 1
Behind our persona, the disguise that we put on in the presence of
others to hide our true identity, lies our ego and shadow. The ego, the
characteristics that deal with reality, is easy for us to display because its
what we use to fit well into society. We consciously acknowledge the
presence of our ego and we know how to modify it so that we can get
accustomed to our culture. The shadow, however, lies deep within our
psyche, or soul, and we almost completely ignore the fact that its there.
Despite us failing to see it, we all have a shadow and it is just as important
as our ego.
We develop this shadow early in our lives. During this process, the
civilizing process, we categorize our characteristics into two groups. In
Owning Your Own Shadow, author Robert Johnson states that we sort out
our God-given characteristics into those that are acceptable to our society
and those that have to be put away (4). What he means by this is that we
put away the characteristics that we expect will be thought of as
unacceptable by other people based on whatever culture we live in. This is
very beneficial to the development of the human race. If we dont discard our
dangerous characteristics, our civilization wouldnt function as well as it does
today. These characteristics do not leave our psyche completely. They
combine to form our shadow. They just pile up somewhere in our personality

and we dont pay attention to them because we actively try to overlook the
fact that we do own them. Sometimes, the shadow could break out and
cause some terrible issues. An example of this is road rage. If a person was
driving home after a rough day at work and experiences an inconvenience
involving another driver, they could go into a sudden fit of rage because their
shadow overpowers them. Though the rage wasnt exclusively caused by the
other driver, it was easier for them to unleash their shadow in a car, on the
road, at a stranger, with very few consequences.
Acculturation is the process of a person trying to figure out which of
their characteristics belong in the ego and which belong in the shadow
dependent on what the culture they are surrounded by classify as either
normal or inappropriate. Johnson says culture takes away the simple human
in us (5). The simple human in us would do anything it wants. It would act
barbaric and uncivilized. With acculturation, we become a much more
complicated being. We are forced to make decisions like whether a
characteristic should be shared with the public or kept to ourselves.
Depending on the culture, gold, or good characteristics, can be interpreted
as bad characteristics and are put into the shadow. Johnson says this gold is
related to our higher calling, and this can be hard to accept at certain
stages of life. Ignoring the gold can be as damaging as ignoring the dark side
of the psyche (8). We may be scared to accept our gold, but it is just as
important to accept it as it is to put away our shadow. It may take a big
event or a change in our life for us to accept the gold, like depression or

illness. By the time were adults we will have accepted our gold and have a
pretty good idea of how we define our ego and shadow. According to
Johnson, the first half of life is devoted to the cultural processthe second
half of life is devoted to restoring the wholeness (making holy) of life (10).
What he means is once we finish our cultural process, the dividing of the ego
and shadow, we will be ready to make our lives holy.
Our personalities could be thought of as a seesaw. According to
Johnson, Our acculturation consists of sorting out our God-given
characteristics and putting the acceptable ones on the right side of the
seesaw and the ones that do not conform on the leftterrible law prevails
that few people understand and that our culture chooses to ignore
completely. That is, the seesaw must be balanced if one is to remain in
equilibrium (10). What he means is that our ego and shadow are on
opposite ends of a seesaw and people tend to ignore the fact that the
seesaw must be balanced. If we have too many characteristics on one side,
then the seesaw flips and we might behave differently. A good example of
people behaving differently because of this flip are celebrities who act
delightful and charming on camera, then go on to take part in drug and
alcohol abuse when they are alone and away from the public eye. The
fulcrum, or center point, of the seesaw could also be broken if it is carrying
too many characteristics. Our psyche does a good job of balancing the
seesaw, but with the right amount of energy, the fulcrum does have a good
chance of snapping that would result in complications like psychological

meltdowns or psychosis. Accepting our shadow is how we balance our

seesaws. Having a balanced seesaw is how we reach the holy place, and if
we fail to balance our seesaw, we will fail ones sainthood and miss the
purpose of life (17) according to Johnson. Accepting our shadow helps us in
understanding our own humanity and coming to terms with our psyche.
To reach our holy place is challenging, as we are continuously worrying
about having to show others the right side of our seesaw, but it is essential
for us to be able to enter the personal effectiveness mindset. True holiness
is, according to Johnson, for each of us to pick up our own dark side,
combine it with our hard-earned light, and make something better of it all
than the opposition of the two (31). We must continue to exclusively show
the world our ego and good characteristics, but we must also accept the
existence of our shadow to reach our holy place.