Carl Jung’s Shadow, a Manga named Bleach, and How a Man may find a Basis for Survival.

So, I decided to take a break from writing vague nsfw stories to actually do some real work. Make absurd references to anime and stitch them together with a smart guy’s philosophies.

Disclaimer: I am not a psychiatrist nor anyone close to a top percentage of people who can speak on Jungian ideas and or philosophies. This is simply a playful exercise in making patterns and connections. Whether they do or do not really exist.

~okay

>Carl Jung

1875 saw the birth of a Swiss psychiatrist named Curl Gustav Jung, who laid the founding works for analytical psychology.

~'Hide ya girl'

This is a school of psychology that aims to highlight the significance of a journey one must take to achieve ‘wholeness’. ‘Wholeness’ here, referring to a complete sense and knowledge of one’s own existence. The entire spectrum of traits that encompass who you are, whether they be good or bad; and what your desires you have, that fuel the very mechanics of your motivations.

> Carl Jung’s Shadow

Upon the choice (debatable) to proceed on this journey. The very first place one must begin, as Jung indicates, is at facing and embracing your ‘shadow’. The shadow could essentially be explained as the most deplorable, disgusting and undesirable parts of who you are. The sometimes dark and intrusive thoughts that come into your head, the unintentional physical outburst, the slip of the tongue into a foul statement. Or the choice to save yourself at the expense of others when it means survival.

According to Jung, we all exist with our own, individual psyches and thus shadow sides. Meaning, we all have the potential to be dangerous.

>Which reminds me of anime.

With a basic understanding of the ‘shadow’. We can then begin to explore Jung’s ideas of archetypes and our subconscious ability to understand the underlying messages being brought forth, through entertainment.

In a manga turned anime called Bleach, Kurasaki Ichigo is an aloof 15-year-old high school student.

~ So innocent, so dashing

He already has a bit of a temper and the ability to defend himself through martial arts when provoked.

'Take that dad!'

But the feets he’d have to scale in order to survive become much greater than anything he could ever imagine. After a not so chance incident where he meets spiritual warriors from a place called The Soul Society, who fight off fierce spiritual beings named hollows.

Hollow

Ichigo is quickly sucked into a whole new world of possibilities and dangers. His spiritual powers are thrust into light as a result of an attacking hollow and to the surprise of members of soul society. Ichigo is then invited to train with them thus begins his journey to hone his skills and become better equipped to defend earth against evil treats.

~Cue Yamamoto's theme

~Soul Society

Ichigo, is not readily accepted within Soul Society and some of the top ranking, most powerful captains insist on picking fights with him. On one particularly troublesome battle with Byakuya Kuchiki, Ichigo finds himself totally outclassed and certainly on the verge of being killed. He stands face to face with his opponent dress in black and white samurai clothing with his sword/Zanpakuto raised ahead. He is bruised and bloodied when Byakuya announces his next move will be the death blow to Ichigo. Byakuya raises his sword in the air and in the seconds building up to the final attack, Ichigo repeatedly says ‘move’, ‘I have to move’, ‘move dammit!’, to himself in a plea to his body which is now frozen stiff. The screen slowly fills with black, like eyes closing, as Byakuya’s hand begins to drop down. Ichigo continues to speak to himself desperately with a final statement. ‘I, wanna win. I need to win!’. At that very instance, the screen goes completely black and then reappears. Byakuya’s sword is caught by Ichigo’s bare left hand as his face slowly fills with white pieces of matter that form into a skull like mask and a completely different personality manifests in the place of Ichigo’s former self.

The persona speaks internally to Ichigo, ‘I thought I told you already, it would be a big problem for me if you get yourself killed’.

This is because they share the same body and are essentially two halves of the same person. The new Ichigo is a psychotic, crazed fighter who splits the skin and flesh from Byakuya’s torso apart as it belittles Ichigo’s weakness in battle. This reveals that Ichigo possesses powers of both good and evil. He has the pure, good spiritual energy found in the members of Soul Society and the evil powers of Hollows. The mask, was a physical manifestation of his evil powers and a display of the enormous potential harm it is capable of doing when broken free.

At the very moment the Hollowed Ichigo is about to attempt to kill Byakuya, Ichigo gained a bit of control over his body and pulls at the half-filled mask. An internal conflict for control begins.

The Hollow (shadow) self sees Ichigo as weak and incapable of defeating his opponents in battle and feels it should not have to yield power to a less capable form of itself. Thus, the struggle over control in the outer world. Ichigo will see himself continue to battle to fend off this darker side of himself as stronger and stronger opponents cross his path and as he is pushed further beyond his limits.

After spending some time feeling lost. Ichigo is approached by the leader of a group of Vizards. He forces Ichigo to realise that he has to make the transition from finding guidance in the spiritual beings inside of Soul Society to a class of warriors more like himself. Vizards have confronted their hollow (shadow) selves and won control. They become his best shot at truly taking the throne in his psyche.

For Ichigo, this meant him willingly waging war within the confines of his own conscious and proving to his hollow half that he was more powerful all along, thus convincing it to bow to him as master. This, consequently made Ichigo a much more powerful fighter who was capable of protecting not only himself, but those around him.

> Real Life

In real life though we’ll seldom meet with hundreds of deadly opponents yielding samurai swords that appear out of thin air with a conviction to kill us.

None the less, the world can be a dangerous place. Your belongings may be take from you by an unarmed opponent because you have no training in self-defense. Money, may be stolen from you through lies and misdirection, and psychological warfare may be waged against you through priming and or manipulation because of a lacking ability to pin point intent in that situation.

As was mentioned above, we all possesses a shadow self and thus the capability to do bad things. It is by tapping into that reality and being able to accept that others may manifest their shadows on you that you are able to protect yourself and your loved ones. It is a basis of survival and it is primal, but once overcome, it becomes a stepping stone into becoming a more disciplined and competent human being, who has the potential to achieve massive success and the ability to display great compassion. Sometimes the greatest weapon against your enemy, is the very energy they use to attack you with. Jungian philosophy suggests that a shadow self that is not dealt with, will slip out and manifest itself in various ways. At the extreme being in the form of a tyrant or a shameful character according to society’s standards.

'Whuu, I'm going in hard on these boys today.'

If you enjoyed the read and would like to explore more of Carl Jung's ideas, check out his books on amazon using the following:

https://amzn.to/2M0Jlsw ~ The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 1)
https://amzn.to/2JNUKiM ~ Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 2)

If you would like to watch the Bleach series, use:

https://amzn.to/2K7mM8t ~Bleach Original and Uncut Box Set Season 1-2-3-4

And if you want to know what defeating your shadow self may look like. Here's Chuck Norris:

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Gucci gang, gucci gang, gucci gang NO!