| Even after having read Carl G Jung & Robert A Johnson, I found interesting commentary with Robert Bly's writings on the Human Shadow. When he began with his metaphors of "the bag, the film can and projection," I quickly awakened to his supporting roles for Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson and Carl Jung! "In the old Gnostic tradition that we don't invent things, we just remember..." Then he calls on his three Europeans "who remember the dark side best." After covering his graphic three metaphors using Marilyn Monroe for "her projections as part of her power-longing and childhood disturbance" ...He moved into even more authentic resources with Alice Miller's "Prisoners of Childhood." Later as renamed, "The Drama of the Gifted Child" gaining popularity & clout with many of us working with Prison Inmates! "Many ancient religions...evidently moved so as to bring up the dark side into the personality slowly and steadily. Christianity has acted historically to polarize the 'dark personality' and the 'light personality.'" Today this is surely not only true in the areas of Religions, but present day's "dominant personality in the West tends to be idealistic, compassionate, civilized, orderly as Dr Jekyll's...so caring with his Patients.(A good bit parallel with some Broadway Musicales!) When he really gets into my heavy personal resources, he delves into Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" & "Heart of Darkness" + Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn!" From there, on to Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and other Poets! I became more smitten & really impressed! Hooray for Robert Bly!
Retired Chap Fred W Hood |
