‘In A Dark Time, The Eye Begins To See’

(All names and personal details have been altered to ensure confidentiality)

Adam was referred to me by the college where he was in his second year as a student of the performing arts. No one was able to provide a satisfactory explanation of his difficulties which, however, were serious enough for the college to request his withdrawal from his final year of studies. I was told that he had become inconsistent and students now preferred not to work with him: he could never repeat the same rehearsal procedure, nor return to the same position on stage, and inadvertently he sometimes hurt the other students in the various forms of physical contact the exercises or roles demanded. He had become clumsy. I was also told that his eye contact was minimal, and that he tried to hide his face, and had become increasingly introverted and physically hunched. From the beginning this young man reminded me of a moth desperate to seek out the light, and yet trapped by an invisible darkness. Jung writes how

A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps. Whenever possible he prefers to make an unfavourable impression on others. In the long run, luck is always against him because he is living below his own level and at best only attains what does not suit him. (Jung 1940)

This description seemed to correspond both to the college's assessment and to my earliest experiences of Adam. During the course of my work with him I was also struck by the similarity of some of my own hypotheses and Wharton's conclusions about ‘links between the shadow, shame, and early defences such as splitting, omnipotence