A Monster Calls (2011), is a novel written by Patrick Ness, developed from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, who died of breast cancer in 2007. Ness writes of Dowd that she, “had the characters, a premise, and a beginning. What she didn't have, unfortunately, was time.”

In A Monster Calls, we suggest that we can consider the shadow as the appearance of the “unthinkable thought”— a thought so terrible that the young protagonist, Conor, represses it and refuses to acknowledge it, until it consumes him with guilt and he unconsciously summons a monster to help him face it.

Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, and later adapted into a film by David Fincher. In Fight Club, the shadow is represented by the mysterious and charismatic Tyler Durden, who serves as a projection of the narrator's repressed desires and rage. Tyler represents the narrator’s desire to break free from the constraints of society and live a life of freedom and adventure.

We hope you enjoy the episode

References:

Episode 7— Jung, The Shadow, and A Wizard of Earthsea

Carl Jung —The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol 9. Part 1 and 2

• Part 1: The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious
• Part 2: Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self

Carl Jung — Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962).

Maggie Hyde — Introducing Jung: A Graphic Guide

Scott J. Hill — Confrontation with the Unconscious: Jungian Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Experience (2019).

A Monster Calls (novel), written by Patrick Ness (from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd), published 2011

A Monster Calls (film), directed by J. A. Bayona from a screenplay by Patrick Ness.

Chuck Palahniuk — Fight Club (novel)

David Fincher — Fight Club (film)

Tool — Forty-Six & 2 — Ænima

Links:

Altered Mates Website

Altered Mates Instagram

Music for the show by Si Mulumby.

In the Altered Mates family, we find that The Shadow is a useful model to bring to the Psychedelic Experience, to account for the sometimes confronting imagery and insights we often face in those realms.

In this episode we unpack Jung’s concept of The Shadow and consider its manifestation in the classic work of fantasy fiction “A Wizard of Earthsea”, written by Ursula Le Guin.

In a wonderful essay written by Konstantinos Salavatis, the protagonist’s confrontation with The Shadow is summarised as follows:

“In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged’s enemy is his own shadow, the dark side of his character, born out of his youthful mistakes, pride and over-confidence in addition to his ignorance that evil resides inside one’s psyche. In true Jungian fashion, only when he acknowledges the shadow within himself does he attain true selfhood and maturity.”

We hope you enjoy this plunge into the depths...

References

Carl Jung —The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol 9. Part 1 and 2

• Part 1: The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious
• Part 2: Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self

Carl Jung — Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Maggie Hyde — Introducing Jung: A Graphic Guide

Scott J. Hill — Confrontation with the Unconscious: Jungian Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Experience

Ursula Le Guin — A Wizard of Earthsea

Konstantinos Salavatis — Wholeness of Self: Coming of Age in Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and The Farthest Shore

Links:

Altered Mates Website

Altered Mates Instagram

Music for the show by Si Mulumby.