“In contrast to this cautious, sensible approach to life and the rather traditional values which you hold, there is another figure in your inner psychic drama which you have had to exclude or suppress from your usual conscious expression in order to preserve the security and the socially acceptable image which are so important to you. There is something rebellious and rather wild inside you, which not only longs to break free of the sometimes constricting views you hold; it is also much more concerned with, and connected to, the broader stream of humanity, particularly the unconscious side of the collective, where new and innovative ideas are born. Most likely you are quite unconscious of this shadow-side of yourself, or repress it forcibly because it seems so chaotic; and you are also likely to inadvertently project it onto suitable people and ideologies outside you, which then appear to you threatening, freakish, subversive, or mad. “Normal” is a word that matters a good deal to you, yet this secret iconoclast inside you is not “normal” by your conventional standards. It is much too individualistic, volatile and visionary to fit any of your preconceived notions of how decent people ought to behave. You need to integrate some of this unpredictable and eccentric spirit into your conscious life, for it will keep your mind and imagination alive and responsive to growth and change. But if you suppress it entirely, then it may come back at you through others; and then you are likely to be threatened or overwhelmingly fascinated by just those people whom you are so quick to condemn as being odd or strange. And it can also haunt you from within, as a chronic anxiety and a deep fear of your own potential chaos. But this shadow-side of you is not malevolent; it is merely spirited, individual and free.

Thus you are not nearly so consistent, solid and “normal” as you might like to believe. It is as though you had your own inner fringe subculture alive and well in the unconscious, full of all the dreamers, anarchists, prophets and visionaries that have no place in your well-ordered world except perhaps as patients (if you are a doctor or a psychotherapist) or as hired talent (if you are on the business or production side of an artistic profession). It might do you a great deal of good to occasionally be disruptive, peculiar, and mystical, for you would discover that, far from destroying your cherished stability, it would make you a more flexible, open and sympathetic person. You have deep loyalties and commitments, and would do just about anything for those you love and respect. But you are probably sometimes inadvertently too critical, judgmental and censorious; and your shadow-side can help you to understand that differences, no less than collective uniformity, can provide its own stability and strength.”