The Collective Shadow

The Collective Shadow

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On first encountering the shadow there is no differentiation between what is personal and what belongs to the collective unconscious, but as one becomes more conscious of shadow material it becomes clear that aspects of it do not belong to the individual alone. One begins to differentiate and understand the larger picture; the collective shadow.

Every community, country, and culture has its collective shadow that it projects out onto others. In biblical times, communities would often perform rituals in which a goat representing all that was evil and negative in the community (the shadow of the community), was sent out into the desert to die. This is the derivation of the word scapegoat. We can also say that a scapegoat is a person, country, or culture that serves as the object of the projected collective shadow. 

Guiseppe Tornatore portrays this phenomenon in the Italian film, Malena. The film takes place in a small Sicilian town during World War 2, where a beautiful young woman, Malena, becomes the object of desire of most of the town's male population. The combined focus of sexual energy leads to jealous and malicious gossip about Malena that builds up until she is beaten by the women of the village and forced to leave. It is a story of sexual suppression and what happens to that unexpressed energy accumulated within the collective shadow. The collective shadow must have some object on which to express itself. In this case the shadow is projected onto a young woman and affects her life in a profound way.

Countries also have a collective shadow and a need to project that shadow. People are usually unaware of the shadow of their own country, except through another country that is perceived as an enemy. When negative energy builds up to the point at which it can no longer be contained, it is released through explosions of violence or even war. Ancient civilizations often used rituals such as the scapegoat ritual in biblical times or other types of sacrifice to assuage this buildup in the collective unconscious. Contemporary society has felt the need to cleanse itself of such "barbaric" rituals, but the need to deal with the collective shadow remains.

As we move through the twenty-first century, a development is taking place that requires a change in the way that humanity has been dealing with the collective shadow. Through increased communication and air travel, we have become more of a global community, and it is much more dangerous to project our collective shadow onto another country. The threat of nuclear war has put us all in the same soup. We are now a global community, whether we like it or not. What do we do with our collective shadow energy as it becomes more and more life-threatening to project it? The time has come for a development in consciousness that leads to a different way of dealing with shadow energy.

One aspect of this development is for each of us to take responsibility for our own shadow in order to alleviate the buildup of negativity within the collective shadow. If this is to be done, it leads to some very special challenges for therapists and health practitioners. It requires that those in the healing arts process their own shadow material and understand the role of the shadow in health and disease.

Recently, there has been an increase in health problems that cannot be successfully treated, such as autoimmune diseases, cancer and Covid. Many types of medications, such as antibiotics, that address disease organisms are no longer effective against many acute diseases. Obesity and infertility are continuing to increase. These trends may indicate the need to look in another direction to evaluate the causes of these conditions.

An understanding of the shadow of the patient, the therapist, and medicine in general will be one way to give insight into these problems. Many questions are still unanswered in this area and must be dealt with, ultimately, on an individual level. Too little is known about the role of the shadow in disease, but it is certain that we cannot begin to understand this problem until the shadow, both collective and personal, is brought further into the light of consciousness.

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Dreams, Symbols, & Homeopathy,

Jane Cicchetti