Introduction to Maximum Advantage Collection by Travis B. Part 2

As a representation of the repressed components of an individual’s personality, the Shadow[1] archetype contains a litany of undesirable and unprocessed drives. These drives stem from the fragmented contents of one’s conscious life. As one experiences their culturally or self-perceived weaknesses, whether based on an objective and valid assessment, or the subjective inferential appraisal of one‘s potential, the resulting tension is determined by one’s ability to process or repress the experienced drive (or tension). Although there are clearly various unstated contingencies that affect this process, such as self esteem, sense of self-efficacy, actual competency, as well as external support (etc.), the result is the same: actively processing and integrating the given material or the active rejection or denial of the content with the subsequent repression.

The development of a personal identity requires nurturance and time. The baby’s cognitive development is in many instances directly correlated with their biological age. With the acquisition of more complex cognitive precepts the infant is progressively capable of grasping newer and more complex ideas. When a child is only several months old it does not understand that an object continues to exist even though it may not be present. As the child grows older they not only become more familiar with the principles of object constancy, in which the same object still remains even if not seen, they also acquire increasing knowledge of shape and size, texture, use, and meaning.

[1] I consider the use of SRL’s placement of the shadow archetype, as well as my use of the Father and Mother archetypes in subsequent pages, to represent fundamental social and institutional patterns. As macro-systems they of course are generalized. The image of the Jungian archetype is employed as a result of its sentient properties. This artificial sentience is the result of the people that influence its development. For further fascinating reading on the Shadow archetype see: Henderson, Joseph. Shadow and the Self: Selected Papers in Analytical Psychology. Illinois: Chiron Publishing,1990.