Faust and Integration of Shadow

Goethe's brilliant work Faust is an excellent depiction how part of our life task before we die is to integrate our shadow life with our conscious life, and to do this before we die. In Rose's case it became clear to me there was much about her life that she tried to keep cut off from consciousness either because it caused her shame or simply made her uncomfortable. Those shameful episodes in her life became the focus of our discussions. Over time I believed they were the key to her attachment to life, perhaps what was keeping her from moving on. It raises the question what role shame may play in the transformative aspects of the transition from the heroic stance. Are we tied to the mundus realitas because of shame and resolution or transformation of shame is necessary to the dying process? Rose shared with me an experience as a teenager. She felt she did not fit in because she did not have a boyfriend while all of her girlfriends did. She had her heart set on a particular boy for her prom. Her best girlfriend, a friend she said she was so close to, they sometimes went to the batheroom together, betrayed her. Her girlfriend went behind her back to ask her boyfriend to the prom. Rose was devastated. Her response was to cut herself from both her girlfriend and her boyfriend. She later found out that he did not go with her to the prom. But her response was interesting. She simply cut off all contact with them and cut off that part of herself in which shame was embedded. As we discussed in the story of Sedna, the cut off part of herself continued to influence her conscious life from deep within her ocean, her unconscious. She did not discuss this aspect of her life for many years. She told me she did not want to dwell on such things so she developed a personae strong enough to withstand the influence of these cut off parts of herself. Sometimes in our sessions that part of her, the hurt and feelings of betrayal seemed very close. I could almost see the little girl in the old woman.

Hamlet

Hamlet was caught between the heroic realm and the transformed. He could not accept his responsibility as being heir to the throne. Even if he did not literally kill his father, he contributed to his father's death by not preventing it. The burden of this particpation is too much for him. In the following alchemical plates from Janus Lacinius Therapas depicting the transformative sequence to the “lapis”, the philosopher’s stone, we see the son and five servants representing the potentialities of life seeking recognition of a “sleeping” emperor.

The king is sleeping because he is no longer conscious and his time is over. The image suggests the servants are beseching him for change and he is unresponsive. It falls on the son, as pharmakon, to initiate the transformation.



So he kills the king, the old order, the cultural world view (Becker) the status quo. Change requires the sacrifice. The king in Hamlet could not accept his fate and still haunts the moors looking to avenge his death. Hamlet picks up on the projection and becomes the avenger, though he is unable to follow through. Hence he is caught inbetween worlds in which he fulfills the role of hero and the role in which he is transformed. He resists the transformation-that is his tragedy. He becomes victom of the process. Next post we will explore what Hamlet would have needed to be able to do to become transformed.