The Shadow: Fixation

Introduction

In one of his classic comedy routines Victor Borge sits down at the piano and says to the audience: "Pardon my back. Pardon my front ... But that's the way I'm built!"

Every coin has two sides. Our body has a front and a back. And every body casts a shadow. These facts are neither good nor bad in themselves. They are just facts of life. To say, with psychologist Carl Jung, that every person has a shadow side, a "not-so-nice" side to their personality, is not necessarily to make a negative judgment. The issue is not whether or not to have a shadow. The issue is how do we deal with our shadows. Three weeks from now, for example, we will take a look at anger. Now anger certainly can be a dark and evil thing ... but not necessarily! The psalmist makes that …