Shadow Work

This is the first of a series of articles that aims to study the history and psychological significance of the “myth of the zombie” through the analysis of its allegorical and symbolic elements, based on a myth’s conceptualization extracted from the notions of Jung’s analytical psychology and Eliade’s history of religions. Here, we’ll look deeply into the symbolic genealogy that comes before and it’s inserted in zombie conception in Seabrook’s The magic island (first text where zombie appears as living dead) through a comparative analysis with the somnambulist in literature and filmography of “the dark side of animal magnetism and hypnosis” and its connection with the automaton.

The live action role-playing community as a
subculture within the United States represents an
aspect of repression within the greater society, just as
most subcultures in some way do. Due to the unique
qualities of the activities in which participants within
this subculture engage, indeed because of the very
fabric of the subculture itself, it becomes imperative
to examine issues of psychological repression and
engagement of repressed materials. Within live
action role-playing, players both consciously and
unconsciously engage in and enact archetypal
roles in a liminal and communal setting. Because of
the “safe space” that is often created during these
forms of play—sometimes referred to as the “magic
circle”—participants often find themselves free to
explore psychic materials that would be considered
part of the shadow. Shadow is a Jungian concept of the
repressed, the unknown, or unrecognizable within
a consciousness. Just as players may delve into their
individual shadows within the frame that archetypal
enactment provides them, so too does the subculture
as a whole have its own group shadow that can be
enacted. In a manner that is somewhat unique to this
subculture, group shadow is engaged directly when
groups of players play games that evoke shadow
issues through their structure.
This paper is an examination of shadow within
larp. There are many models and methods through
which to interpret this concept. However, because of
how relevant and heavily related Jungian concepts
of archetype and other depth psychological
perspectives are to the issue at hand, and because
of the sheer lack of previous academic exploration of
this topic through this lens, they will be the primary
models through which the issue is viewed. In the
case of the individual, I will explore the relationship
between shadow work in larp and individuation.
From there, I will move on to a wider perspective
of the group shadow and its engagement. I will
investigate the possible consequences of group
shadow enactment, as the individuation process is not
possible for group consciousnesses.
Shadow enactment has the potential for
both positive and negative effects on players and
the community as a whole. Providing a structure
with which to identify, categorize, and understand
shadow can contribute to the overall awareness of
the psychological processes that occur within and
because of larp. This awareness can help players,
larpwrights, and organizers to make informed
decisions as to how they write, run, and play larps.

Partimos de uma das mais importantes fábulas clássicas que nos narram histórias de sombras – a pintura (e o retrato) teriam nascido no dia em que o homem teve a ideia de desenhar os contornos de uma sombra projectada sobre uma superfície. Convocamos o papel do índice que estava em jogo,  insistindo na equação entre a relação amorosa e o desejo de conservar vestígios físicos de uma presença votada a desaparecer. Com o decalque de uma sombra, Lourdes Castro arranca uma parte de um continuum mais amplo: o passado – como um Monumento – passa a ser uma espécie de eterno passado no presente. Não obstante, ao contrário do desígnio do retrato (tal como definido na Renascença), Lourdes Castro parece não «ressuscitar» o modelo morto, porque, efectivamente, não o «fixa» em imagem «viva». Apresentando, ao invés, as pessoas como espectros, ela afasta-se do sentido essencial da ostensiva obsessão estético-metafísica em sobreviver realmente à morte de que José Gil nos fala; isto é, daquela função específica do retrato, enquanto dispositivo particular de fabricação de um tempo real eterno dentro do tempo. Com uma boa dose de paradoxismo, apesar de entrar em colapso a primeira condição do retrato moderno – o seu suporte fenomenológico, a contemplação da imagem integral do outro, os sinais substitutivos, os traços de uma expressividade que esconde, fazendo rolar a ilusão, a aparência, a iminência da fala, como critérios do retrato vivo –, a verdade é que o desígnio mítico, originário do retrato é, em Lourdes Castro, alcançado: uma pintura que, em nome dos afectos, torna ainda, por assim dizer, presente o próprio ausente.

This is the third of a series of articles that aims to study the history and psychological significance of the birth of the «myth of the zombie» through the analysis of its allegorical and symbolic elements. Here, we will research into the archetypal structure of White Zombie –the first zombie movie in history– and its hypnotic genealogy —selecting the films Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and Svengali— from an analytical psychology perspective in order to get the bottom of its unconscious psychological meaning. The methodology that we use for it is going to be the comparative-historical analysis between the symbolic elements and the nuclear mythologem of White Zombie and his genealogy and certain structural elements which appear in cultural traditions closely related to the unconscious as alchemy or shamanic initiations.

Shadow projection, as the transference of personal inferiority, and the related concept of ‘sin transference’, lie at the heart of the mystery of evil. Socially corrosive projection neither stems from “misunderstandings” in the micro-social context nor from predatory instincts. It is an archaic method of ego emancipation by which the transgressor’s unconscious suffering is transferred to the victim. It aims at maintaining ego firmness. By reason of their capacity of free thought, intellectuals are often targets of shadow projection. It is really a projection of Promethean guilt, as the intellectual may call into question the established order. An answer to the machinations of evil has been formulated in Christian theology. The ego’s suffering is laid on the shoulders of Christ, who carries the sins of the world. The Christ figure is understood as the inner Self (“life-giver”). This helps to promote spiritual awareness (“Christ lives in me”, Galatians 2). A regress to pre-Christian cultural values implies a rebound of scapegoat psychology, as exemplified by the collective shadow psychology of the Third Reich. Western civilization today undergoes changes which undermine our awareness of the spiritual Self. If our sins aren’t carried by the inner Self anymore, then they must be carried by other human beings, with foreseeable consequences. The article discusses the notion of an instinctual foundation of evil.

Keywords: wickedness, the shadow, Self, sin transference, group narcissism, intellectuals, scapegoatism, Christian love, Orlando massacre.

Abstract
“Mythologized over time, Ophelia has attained the status of a cult figure […] to such an extent that she has become a cliché” (C. Solomon Kiefer). After an excursus on the development of Ophelia’s literary myth, my paper will focus on the central function ascribed to Ophelia’s madness in H. Müller’s destruction and reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The new Ophelia (“the one the river didn’t keep”) refuses Yorick’s grave to accept his role as the Fool “who” – to say it with the words of Jungian analyst W. Willeford – “violate[s] the human image and who come[s] to a modus vivendi with society by making a show of that violation.” Consequently, Ophelia will “demolish the instruments of [her] captivity” and “go out on to the streets, dressed in blood”. Society’s attempt to inhibit her irrational power (secluding her in a mental hospital) will fail: Ophelia/the Fool will disown her old Self to turn into Elektra – mythical heroine of logic and revenge – thus obtaining the power to merge extremes (“long live [...] death”) and to silently communicate with everyone’s archetypal side through images. From the analysis of the text, supported by categories from depth psychology, I demonstrate that Hamletmaschine promotes Ophelia’s madness as a revolutionary gesture against the logic of oppression: a means to trigger chaos on stage in order to generate a new cosmos in the audience’s world of conventions.

For several decades the zombie myth maintained the same symbolic structure as literature and cinematography regarding the perverse use of animal magnetism and hypnosis, the genealogy from which it descends. In the last third of twentieth century the myth underwent a profound transformation, which nevertheless represented a continuation of its previous unconscious meaning. The analysis of the new archetypal elements that it included, closely related to a nuclear aspect of the spirit of twentieth century art, enables us to develop an interpretive approach to a mythical framework and its underlying psychological process currently running through the collective psyche: respectively, the initiation death and the solvent and disintegrative dynamic of the soul. It will be based in the analytical psychology theoretical framework and we will use the historical-comparative method.

This is the second of a series of articles that aims to study the history and psychological significance of the “myth of the zombie” based on a myth’s conceptualization extracted from the notions of Jung’s analytical psychology and Eliade’s history of religions. Here, starting from the hypothesis that the background of the zombie is found in the “dark side of magnetism and hypnosis” literature and filmography, we will try to show how the central mythologem and the characteristic motifs of this genealogy are assumed and developed in White Zombie, the first zombie movie in history. Through this analysis we will examine the allegorical elements of the first cinematographic works of zombie myth, whose nuclear topics are science and totalitarianism, and we will try to unveil the psychological sense of its fundamental symbolic components.

Overcoming the trauma driven hell on Earth All humans are more or less haunted by traumata during their lifetime. A trauma occurs when a physical or psychical force is violating heavily our mental, emotional or physical integrity. Many traumata occur as natural part of life through accidents, destructive natural forces, illnesses and death. So humans developed certain biological instincts and cultural healing traditions to deal with intense physical and or psychical pain. Instinctive reaction number one is the imediate posttraumatic release of the suffered pain by crying or acting it out. Instinct number two is the social security seeking, e.g. the fallen child, that runs crying to it´s mother to seek consolidation. Emergency instinct number three for cases, in which the trauma stress can not be released fully by body and brain, is the suppression of the trauma into the underconsciousness of the lower brain parts and into certain body organs. The trauma becomes encapsulated in unconsciousness and thus invisible for the wake mind and stops haunting the memory constantly, but remains permanently part of psyche and body. To release such suppressed traumata already the earliest tribal cultures had developed diverse healing techniques as post-traumatic therapies, e.g. travelling back in memory into the original traumatic situation, crying out the suppressed and stocked pain, forgive and find peace in a regained inner harmony. But nowadays civilized human beings are not only haunted by natural traumata, but even more by cultural traumata. They come through war and violance, oppression and tyranny, maleducation and abuse. The average civilized person gains so many of them, that a major part of them can not get released fully und thus get suppressed, so that underconsciousness and body become filled with stored stress energy. And the modern materialistic civilisation has lost most traditional healing techniques to deal with this problem. Nowadays psychology is build to treat mere symptoms and repair human psyches like defect machines, so that they will function in an inhumane system again, that made them sick in the first place and will drive them crazy anew. Long term unreleased stress works as chronic inflamation in body and brain and causes in the long run many severe diseases like cancer, heart attacks, strokes and many more. Stress makes the body acidic and oxygen poor and shuts the immune system down, which invites bacteria, fungi and viruses. Even worse: The trauma stress that is stored in the underconscious parts of the brain is acting like a crazy invisible demon. It´s moving under the radar of the wake mind and spreads deep fear or glowing anger or other suppressed negative emotions. It´s original mission is to avoid another traumatisation at all costs, but the price is to preserve the already traumatized state. So it drives one to avoid certain potentially traumatic environments or situations, it makes one feel weak like a victim and in need for shelter, despite the price of enslavement for being protected. Or it attacks before it can be attacked itself, when a certain situation occurs that resembles somehow the original traumatic situation. That´s the violator who was once violated, the former upbeaten child, who smashes peoples faces as adult now. But it´s not only ones own personal traumata that are creating a life full of fear and anger. The hell on Earth really starts, when many traumatized people form a society in which millions of underconscious trauma demons play fear and anger with each other. That´s the perfect atmosphere for mass psychosis, for populism and fearmongering, civil unrest and lynch mobs, progroms and genozides, war and dehumanisation of all kinds. And that´s the way trauma demons procreate themselves. They create out of fear and anger situations in which they can traumatize other people, even their own children. They are as selforganizing parts of the human psyche living entities with an own intention and will to survive, thrive and spread their seeds. They cause bad thoughts, feelings and habits and nourish from the subsequent suffering. When they show themselves openly in the eyes of the traumatizer, they have nothing human. The rapist, the torturer, the drunken father beating up his family, they all have the abyss deep night dark eyes of a demon, when they commit their crimes. This is a primordial being from the reptilian part of the human brain, that knows no empathy, only fight or flight, anger or fear, run or kill. This is the energy that conspiration theorists like to call an invasion of predator reptilians, who keep the human race in slavery. But i´ts not an alien life force, but our own traumatized brainstem, that terrorizes us. Until we understand, what´s going on and begin to heal our traumata. But we have to understand first, that our culture have build in a lot of passive and active resistances against such intentions. The reason is, that the kind of society we live in, has learned to use traumatisations as a driving force of the system itself. A typical example is the closing of the heart in consequence of traumatisations, that can be used to foster replacement needs. When humans would be naturally seeking a loving and compassionate coexistence with their people, but are deeply wounded and disappointed in their heart, they tend to fill their stomach instead of their heart or get intellectually swollen heads or overly sexually orientated. Because the real need for loving relationships is never met, the replacement need begans to rotate in never ever reached satisfaction trials. For an economy that is build on growth this is a perfect condition, because it can sell ever more unnecessary goods and services to people, who just use them for shortterm fake satisfactions. Another example were the Romans, who kept their whole population

Can a person alter their physical form in physical reality to the extent that such a transformation is plainly visible to others? There are such adepts, but I'm not one of them. Such physical changes are based solely in physical reality and have no root in what is our eternal essence, or eternal self. Our eternal selves are without form, gender, sex, age; we become aware of them as we evolve. This type of evolution requires our active participation and consent. We do not evolve healthily otherwise.

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The country has been classified by the World Bank as an ‘upper middle income’ country, having a GNI per capita of USD 11,159 in 2012. The
objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to examine how the fight against undeclared work is organised, and to review relevant policy approaches
and measures adopted. Throughout the report, the situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is compared with the EU27 wherever feasible.

In recent years, the view that the undeclared economy is separate from the declared economy has been transcended, not least because it has been recognised that formal employers often pay their formal employees not only an official declared salary but also an undeclared (envelope) wage so as to evade their full tax and social insurance liabilities. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence of this illegal wage practice used by formal employers to reduce their labour costs by not declaring to the authorities the full salary of their formal employees. To do this, we report the pooled results of both a 2007 and 2013 Eurobarometer dataset in order to investigate both individual-and country-level variations in under-declared employment in the European Union. The finding is that the likelihood of receiving an additional undeclared (envelope) wage is more common among employees who are men, younger employees, manual workers, people who know others engaged in undeclared work, and those living in East-Central Europe and Southern Europe. Moreover, the likelihood of this illegal wage practice is greater in countries at lower levels of economic development and with less modernised state bureaucracies, lower levels of social transfers, social protection and labour market interventions to protect vulnerable groups, and with greater severe material deprivation and inequality. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.

Full title in English: “Vertical development and shadow integration: Towards a practical synthesis of adult developmental psychology, psychotherapy, and work with states of consciousness”

Тезисы доклада, заявленного на конференцию «Психотехники и изменённые состояния сознания» (8–10 декабря 2016).

Основной вопрос обсуждения — каким образом можно совместить и нужно ли совмещать вертикальное развитие и психотерапию (работу с тенью в общем), а также возможна ли фасилитация вертикального развития посредством методов личностного и психодуховного роста.

This report provides a detailed review of available evidence on the extent and nature of the undeclared economy in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), as well as on the institutional actors involved in tackling the phenomenon and their policy approach and measures used.

Extent and nature of the undeclared economy

Some widely cited international measurements that cover FYROM find that the share of its undeclared economy is larger than in all EU Member States, estimated at 35% of GDP in 2007 (Schneider et al, 2010). Data from the most recent national Labour Force Survey suggests that in 2012 around 22.5% of the workforce was engaged in undeclared work, and therefore was not covered by any social or legal protection (SSO, 2013). This survey further indicates that undeclared work has been declining since 2008, in parallel to an increase in the number of formally employed persons.

The age groups most affected by informal employment are young people aged 15-24 (40% of all employed in that age group), as well as those older than 65 years (over 85% of all employed from that age group). When it comes to gender variations, the data reveals that men are slightly more likely to work in the informal sector than women (23.3% of men compared to 21.3% of women for 2012). Moreover, there is a difference in the type of informal work performed with women being mainly informally involved in agriculture, whereas men are self-employed or employers in unregistered firms.

There is a clear link between undeclared work and job precariousness in the FYROM: undeclared workers are less likely to hold full-time, permanent waged jobs. Furthermore, wage earners are less likely to work undeclared than sole traders and the self-employed. These trends become even more pronounced in rural areas compared with urban ones, and among the young and ethnic minorities.

When it comes to sectorial and business variations in the incidence of undeclared work, the main findings of the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2013 suggests that businesses in manufacturing are more likely that those in retail or services to face competition from unregistered firms. At the same time, formal businesses in retail are more likely to perceive such unfair competition as a major constraint to conducting business in the country. Medium-size enterprises, domestic firms and firms located in South Macedonia are also more likely to face competition from entities operating off-the-books.
In general, labour-intensive, low-earning jobs in construction, transport, catering, the textile industry, domestic services, agriculture and trade are particularly prone to undeclared work. Purchasing goods from undeclared merchants at markets is a particularly widespread practice. The share of informal employment in agriculture is significant – between 86.1% and 82.4% of all agricultural employment. This sector is also largely affected by non-standard work.

Barriers to formalisation

From a labour perspective, two major factors hamper formalisation: a) the lack of jobs in the official economy and high unemployment rates and b) some disincentives for engaging in formal work stemming from shortcomings of the welfare system. From the perspective of businesses the frequent changes in the tax system, as well as the lack of transparency and impartiality within state institutions need further attention. Enhancing the skills, expertise and powers of tax officials, improving judicial efficiency and ensuring greater independence of inspectors are some key objectives in the fight against undeclared work. Auditing and arrears collection efficiency and the investigative capacity of the tax administration should be further improved.

Socio-cultural factors such as trust in public institutions and the perceived fairness of official rules and norms have a significant effect on tax morale and voluntary compliance. It seems that a significant proportion of taxpayers do not see a clear link between paid taxes and received benefits, which has resulted in a wide approval of disobedience with official rules. Therefore, all imminent efforts to eradicate undeclared work should put the improvement of the psychological contract between the state and its citizens high on the agenda.

Policy approach to tackle undeclared work

A number of labour market measures have been implemented in FYR Macedonia in recent years, focused mainly on stimulating employment in the official economy. However, when it comes to tackling undeclared work or the transition towards formal employment, the accent is still predominantly on repression through intensified controls and inspections.
Some progress has been achieved in reducing the compliance costs for doing business and easing the tax burden through a number of supply-side measures, such as tax incentives for business, a flat-tax system and tax rate harmonisation, as well as simplified procedures for company registration and paying taxes.

Von Franz said restless is the great neurosis of our time. Does buying a house make you less restless? Are we afraid of commitment, settling down -- instead opting to live provisionally in a state of flux? And, does it matter if you rent or buy? This essay explores some of the complexities of buying versus renting, as well as the general idea of deindividuation as the root of problems in society. Deindividuation is seen in such phenomena internalized oppression, mass-consciousness which perpetuates normativity and those who would root out non-conformity from the social framework.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new way of explaining participation in the informal economy as resulting from the asymmetry between the codified laws and regulations of a society’s formal institutions (government morality) and the norms, values and beliefs of the population that constitute its informal institutions (societal morality). The proposition is that the greater the asymmetry between government morality and societal morality, the greater is the propensity to participate in the informal economy.
Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate this institutional asymmetry theory, the results are reported of 1,306 face-to-face interviews conducted during 2013 in the UK.
Findings – The finding is a strong correlation between the degree of institutional asymmetry (measured by tax morale) and participation in the informal economy. The lower the tax morale, the greater is the propensity to participate in the informal economy. Using ordered logistic regression analysis, tax morale is not found to significantly vary by, for example, social class, employment status or wealth, but there are significant gender, age and spatial variations with men, younger age groups, rural areas and Scotland displaying significantly lower tax morale than women, older people, urban areas and London.
Practical implications – Rather than continue with the current disincentives policy approach, a new policy approach that reduces the asymmetry between government morality and societal morality is
advocated. This requires not only changes in societal morality regarding the acceptability of participating in the informal economy but also changes in how formal institutions operate in order for this to be achieved.
Originality/value – This paper provides a new way of explaining participation in the informal economy and reviews its consequences for understanding and tackling the informal economy in the UK.

In this paper I set out to identify shadow projection and scapegoating in discussions of contemporary critical theory, philosophy and related areas. Particularly, I propose the Jungian idea that shadow projection is a way of giving advice to someone else that is really meant for yourself. This advice is delivered in a way that is palatable to one's ego, which avoids terrible ego wounds. It is similar to Lacan's notion of the subjective position where one speaks from: I can talk about "you" while really referring to myself; I can give you advice which is what I really need to hear but cannot bear to face.

I use the example of prominent theorist Levi Bryant who places the charge of "online crank" against fellow Deleuzian scholar Beth Metcalf. I propose that a potential reason for Bryant's claim that Metcalf is a crank is that he himself has struggled to overcome this stigma, as he is a prominent figure in the burgeoning area of online academic discourse. I then propose that his follow-up post some days later which embraced the idea of himself being a crank, and affirmed his love for all the cranks, is a step in the right direction towards shadow integration and moving on with the individuation process.

For much of the previous century, the informal sector was largely represented as a residue of a previous mode of production confined to marginal populations and gradually disappearing due to the inevitable and natural shift towards the formal economy across the globe. Over the past quarter of a century, however, articles published in Work, Employment and Society have been at the forefront of re-reading the informal sector. This article reveals how this body of literature has shown informal economic activities to be a persistent and ubiquitous feature of the economic landscape, mapped the complex and variable dynamics of formal and informal work in different populations, transcended simplistic universal structure/agency explanations for the persistence of informal work by developing context-bound understandings, and challenged the formal/informal dichotomy which represents the formal and informal sectors as separate hostile worlds. The article concludes by highlighting some possible future directions for research on this topic.

Through a brief study of images,
myths and legends, this article briefly analyzes
the negative charge of shadow in German
expressionist cinema. Highlighting the demonic
connotations of this filmic element in the miseen-
scène of works whose sinister characters
express, through their shadows, their destructive
power over the masses, a phenomenon that will
anticipate the eruption of Nazism.

Jung proposes a mechanism called compensation which guides the development of the anima mundi in an ongoing self-balancing process. Žižek criticizes Jung on the grounds of failing to grasp the Hegelian dialectic, but I argue that Žižek misses the point. Žižek’s critique of Jung fails to grasp that Jung’s compensation theory is a self-balancing process through radical antagonism of the type Žižek approves of. He erroneously thinks that Jung perpetuates that horrible “feel good” New Age relativistic myth which says “In two sides of an argument, neither side is right.”

To tackle cash-in-hand work, public policy has so far concentrated on detecting and punishing the suppliers of such work. Drawing upon evidence from 861 face-to-face interviews in English localities on off-the-books work in the household services sector, however, a widespread cash-in-hand ethos amongst customers is identified suggesting that there is a need for the current raft of supply-side measures to be complemented with demand-side initiatives to encourage consumers to use formal labour.

Mystical master Nachman of Bratzlav tells the following story: A son leaves his home and travels for many years in distant lands. Upon his return he tells his father that he has become a master craftsman. Particularly he has learned to make menorot—candelabrum. His father, wanting to demonstrate his son's wisdom and craft to the community, invites all the master craftsmen to see his work. The craftsmen, however, all quietly tell the father that they think the son's work is lacking; indeed each points out a different deficiency in the son's work. Both hurt and disturbed, the father confronts his son with the poor reviews. To which his son replies: "You will notice, father, that each of the criticisms addresses a different part of the lamp. In fact the deficiency that each person saw was a reflection not of the menorah but of themselves—of their own particular emptiness."

Abstract In recent decades, it has been widely assumed that undeclared work is rife amongst the self-employed. Until now, however, few have evaluated the extent and nature of the participation of the self-employed in undeclared work and whether they do so out of choice or necessity. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap. To do this, an extensive 2007 Eurobarometer survey on undeclared work is reported comprising 26,659 face-to-face interviews conducted in the 27 member states of the European Union.

Mirroring the representation of informal workers in a third world context as displaying entrepreneurial qualities, recent years have witnessed the emergence of a similar view of the informal sector in western nations as a hidden enterprise culture. Until now, however, few attempts have been made to analyze the nature and motives of informal entrepreneurs in western economies.