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A Little Book on the Human Shadow

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 · rating details · 384 ratings · 38 reviews

Robert Bly, renowned poet and author of the ground-breaking bestseller Iron John, mingles essay and verse to explore the Shadow -- the dark side of the human personality -- and the importance of confronting it.

Paperback, 96 pages

Published June 22nd 1988 by HarperOne

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King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert L. Moore

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

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Mar 31, 2012 Jaime rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grow

This book is thought-provoking, and I'm glad I read it, and thought of about ten people who I wanted to ask to read it so I could discuss it. At 90ish pages you can get through it in about an hour or two, and the ideas within it are worth having running through your mind as you look at the world. All that being said, I'm looking forward to rereading it when I have a better understanding of Jung's actual writings on the shadow; the 'definitions' of it in here I find a little bit reductionist. And...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psych, poetry

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In many instances it reminded me of Tanya Wilkinson’s Medea’s Folly and I wonder if this might have been part of the inspiration for her book. If you liked this, definitely check out hers. One of the strongest components of the work was how accessible it was. Bly does an excellent job of explaining and describing the shadow in a way that is resonant and can be easily accessed. Additionally, I found his sympathetic description of projection as mildly brilliant, as...more I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In many instances it reminded me of Tanya Wilkinson’s Medea’s Folly and I wonder if this might have been part of the inspiration for her book. If you liked this, definitely check out hers. One of the strongest components of the work was how accessible it was. Bly does an excellent job of explaining and describing the shadow in a way that is resonant and can be easily accessed. Additionally, I found his sympathetic description of projection as mildly brilliant, as I had never heard it described that way. “If we didn’t project, we might never connect to the world at all” was a sentence that gave me great pause and got the wheels turning about the role of projection as not just a defense mechanism, but also as a potential tool for understanding and relating to the world and ourselves. Along these lines, Bly offers us a hint to finding our shadow by recalling a story about Jungian analyst who thought that by examining the people we hate in an irrational way can give us insight into the parts of ourselves that we have rejected. To me, this corresponded well with the third stage of shadow work: “moral intelligence to repair the rattle”. In this stage, the projection is breaking down and so the psyche invents ways to reinforce it. From these two ideas I began to wonder if the people I irrationally dislike may not be unexpected confrontations with my own shadowy pieces.

Robert Bly’s A Little Book on the Human Shadow is devoted to the role of the shadow both in the psyche of the individual or culture and the work and development of the poet. While Bly is decidedly a poet, the book is deeply concerned with psychological development and its impediments. Bly believes that the shadow is an integral component of the whole being and only by recovering and uncovering its neglected pieces can a person or a culture revive its lost power or rebound from feelings of diminution. In the book, Bly offers several definitions of “shadow” and then offers his own: “the long bag we drag behind us”. One of the five chapters is devoted to the “bag”, including how it is formed, how our parents and culture can effect its contents, and how its presence can effect our lives and relationships. Bly also looks at the role of projection in relationship to our shadow. The middle part of the book is devoted to the five stages of shadow work and how one might discover their own shadow. This discovery process is continued in a conversation between Bly and William Booth in the fourth chapter in addition to a discussion about the role of the shadow in poetry. Finally, in an critical essay on the role of the shadow and Wallace Stevens, Bly returns to where he started the book: “You must change your life”, which he argues Stevens was unable to do and thus the genius of his poetry suffered.

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Jun 28, 2011 Myth Girl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

This book is a fabulous resource for my Jungian Psychology research paper on the shadow. It explores various components of the shadow in a very accessible manner. Bly offers essentially what I would call a great dialogue on the shadow, interspersed with his poetry. One chapter is even an interview between Bly and his editor Booth. I really feel like I just sat down with these two men and listened to a beautiful conversation about this complex idea. I call it complex primarily because the shadow...more This book is a fabulous resource for my Jungian Psychology research paper on the shadow. It explores various components of the shadow in a very accessible manner. Bly offers essentially what I would call a great dialogue on the shadow, interspersed with his poetry. One chapter is even an interview between Bly and his editor Booth. I really feel like I just sat down with these two men and listened to a beautiful conversation about this complex idea. I call it complex primarily because the shadow maintains such a negative connotation, but it is not necessarily always that way. As Booth stated, “it is not something destructive in its very essence” (60).
In the first part, Bly discusses “Problems in the Ark,” and really shares the most poetry here, giving us images of the polarization of lightness and darkness. In second part, “The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us,” Bly dissects the human shadow. Essentially, we are born as a full 360 ball of energy. But we slowly start putting things away in our “bag” to receive positive attention from our parents; what they don’t like gets buried in our bag. We carry on in this manner through high school, now putting the things our peers don’t like in our bag. By our early 20’s, Bly says we only have a sliver of that original ball. Then after a decade or so, we’re ready to dig into our bag and pull it all back out. While all this is going on, we also start projecting (another thing which is not always inherently bad). Then we’re carrying out things we’ve buried in relationships with parents, children, spouses, friends. If our projection is strong enough, the other person is ultimately forced into wearing that mask. It’s a complicated business! And my mind is stuck right now in the thought of the many images and ideas we live with consciously and subconsciously. I’m back to thinking first about perception, and how our reality is what we experience. Throw in that that at the same time we are receiving projections and giving projects, and the self is becoming an even more complicated thing for me to wrap my mind around.
In the third part, Bly discusses “Five Stages in Exiling, Hunting, and Retrieving the Shadow.” First we project, but then something starts to rattle and there’s a disconnect. In the third stage we seek to repair the rattle, and what I see going on is justification, a way of working with the disconnect that is incomplete. In the fourth stage, we come to feel diminished. However many ways we’ve projected ourselves, given away a part of ourselves, those are all ways we now feel diminished. The most interesting commentary here is that Bly said when you share this feeling of diminishment with a friend, the last thing that friend should do is try to cheer you up. I guess this really spoke to me, because I’m always trying to bring everyone sunshine (a nick-name I’ve earned by many). Finally, in the fifth stage, we retrieve that very thing we originally threw out or projected. And then we eat it. We can do this by giving the thing language, or perhaps first with working with it through images or art. And why should we do this? Because “every bit of energy that we don’t actively engage with language or art of floating somewhere in the air . . . No one should make you feel guilty for not keeping a journal, or creating art, but such activity helps the whole world” (43). Here’s the thing about these stages: they can be going on all at once, and they continually reoccur. Also, as Bly really discussed in the second part, the shadow isn’t just personal; there is also a communal shadow and a national shadow, which means we also must deal with the communal projections and the national projections.
In part four, we have the great interview with Booth and Bly. The first key note is that hatred is something that can help us get at our shadows. Who or what is it that really gets us riled up? What is it that you are despising? It’s something in yourself you have buried. Booth questions Bly about the “negative connotations and associations with evil” that are present in the shadow, where Bly explains that evil is separate, but the dark imagery of the shadow can get confused with it. Yet, in fact, “a person who absorbs the shadow becomes not dark, but light and playful” (54). Ultimately, “The shadow energies seem to be a part of the human psyche, a part of its 30-degree nature, and the shadow energies becomes destructive only when they are ignored” (59).
In the fifth and final part, Bly discusses “Wallace Stevens and Dr. Jekyll,” claiming that “[a]ll literature, both of the primitive and the modern peoples, can be thought of as creations by the ‘dark side’ to enable it to rise up from the earth and join the sunlit consciousness again” (63). Bly discusses the shadow-side of Dr. Jekyll, and how we see stories where the shadow side rises and ultimately fails. The discussion also examines a handful of modern poems, and here’s the one I found the most significant.
Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,
Into twenty villages,
Or one man
Crossing a single bridge into a village.
Comes back to what I was thinking about perception and the unique experiences we all have, no matter how many are sharing that experience with us.
Bly leaves us with this reflection: “If the shadow’s gifts are not acted upon, it evidently retreats and returns to the earth. It gives the writer or person ten or fifteen years to change his life, in response to the amazing visions the shadow has brought him – that change may involve only a deepening of the interior marriage of male and female within the man or woman – but if that does not happen, the shadow goes back down, abandoning him, and the last state of that man is evidently worse than the first.

And this is just a touch of the ideas offered in this small text. I will mention one more small idea that spoke to me personally:
“Our culture teaches us from early infancy to split and polarize dark and light . . . some admire the left-thinking, poorly-lit side, and that group one can associate with the mother, if one wants to, and mythologically with the Great Moth. Most artists, poets, and musicians belong to the second group and love intuition, music, the feminine, owl and the ocean. The right-thinking group loves action, commerce and Empire.”
I never really gave this much thought before, but I’m clearly a left-thinker. I hadn’t really considered myself an artist, but I suppose being a writer places me in the category. My jaw just dropped though when I first read this passage and it defined me so well! I always follow my intuition. One of my favorite things on this planet is live music. I’m definitely in touch with my feminine side. I even collect figures of owls. And, most importantly, to me at least, is the ocean. The wonderful, beautiful, deep, endless ocean with all its creatures and magnificent power. As far back as I can remember, I have always loved sitting in the sand gazing at the waves. I’ve never cared to go to the beach during the summer because it’s filled with people, clutter and noise. But cool winter nights? The ocean exists by itself, and it always fills me with serenity.(less)

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Jul 18, 2010 Ivan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: spirituality

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 08, 2011 Bennet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-arts-poetry-film-music

From the forward:

-- "What Robert Bly's poetry readings say in effect is, 'You must change your life.' To hear serious poems and resist all change is worse than a waste of time; it is dangerous." --

This is not to say that what you are must go, or that everything must or should change; only that we should continue to evolve, and must continue to evolve if we're to realize our potential, whether alone or together.

The book explores the process of evolving through the shadowed or obscured or truly da...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Allyson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed-from-jeannine, philosophy

"Evidently we spend the first twenty or twenty-five years of life deciding what should be pushed down into the shadow self, and the next forty years trying to get in touch with that material again" (64).

"Our senses do form a natural bridge to our animal past, and so to the shadow. The sense of smell, shades of light and dark, the awareness of color and sound, so alive in the primitive man, for whom they can mean life or death, are still alive in us, but numbed. They are numbed by safety, and by...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are so few books on the shadow and this one helped me understand the concept much better. It also helped me figure out some ways to figure out where my shadow might lie and how to reintegrate it. I love that Bly points out that in our culture we tend to assume the only alternatives are expression or repression. If our shadow is anger or sexuality going the way of complete expression may be dangerous and hurtful to others, for example. Bly offers a third option beyond total expression or re...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Miss Masumi rated it 5 of 5 stars

i love this book. concise, well arranged, and with a poet's description in sweetly simple words. You can get caught up in the heady and lengthy works about archetypes and shadow, but the simplicity of this book is what draws you in. many people are aware of the behaviors Bly describes in the book, the projection of various archetypes like the Witch and the Giant onto our partners, our parents and so on, but have lacked the language to describe what was happening. in a few short pages, he distill...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Marcus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Robert Bly is a poet, and the language he uses is very organic and meaningful, it feels that it communicates instead of defining the subject. Thanks to this, the book speaks on a very personal level.

From the foreword: "...in the first stage of approach to the unconcious, the shadow is simply a 'mythological' name for all that within me of which I cannot directly know." and "if anything was going to arrive to lift me out of my misery, it would come from the dark side of my personality."

A very enl...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Chris Hennessey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, poetry, essay

If this were instead "a Medium-sized Book on the Human shadow," things may have been more clear but, then, they'd probably be more annoying, too.

Bly is not a gentle (note the space) man. He is a bull. In a way, he's the perfect person to talk about the Human Shadow, because he's living proof of its existence. But I suspect he doesn't even have a clear idea how he's managed to "eat his [own] shadow" and so who is he really to advise us? Well, again, he's a bull - that's who. He's got a resonant,...more If this were instead "a Medium-sized Book on the Human shadow," things may have been more clear but, then, they'd probably be more annoying, too.

Bly is not a gentle (note the space) man. He is a bull. In a way, he's the perfect person to talk about the Human Shadow, because he's living proof of its existence. But I suspect he doesn't even have a clear idea how he's managed to "eat his [own] shadow" and so who is he really to advise us? Well, again, he's a bull - that's who. He's got a resonant, self-assured voice and that helps people relate to concepts like the shadow. But he forces too much. Let me explain that . . .

A near mirror image of Bly is William Stafford. Where Bly is muted black, Stafford is off-white. In a sit-down chat, Stafford once explained to Bly the concept of Blake's "Golden Thread" and how it relates to writing poetry. The Blake lines are:

"I give you the end of a golden string
Only wind it into a ball
It will let you in at Heaven's Gate
Built in Jerusalem's Wall."

Stafford said that any thread in writing is golden if you don't pull it too hard. "Masterful people," he said, "break that thread" and then he tells Bly, "watch out, Robert." He claims he's not suggesting that Bly breaks the threads, so I'll say it for him.

Bly eschews definition. One of the problems with him is that he uses metaphorical, poetical language throughout his prose with little to no clarification on what he means other than by sketching outward from the vague image and sort of smudge-shading it. For example, he refers to the "white nightgown mentality" and keeps on going as if that image should to make sense to everyone. One can never even be sure if the image is his own or if he's borrowing from another poet. In the case of the white nightgown, the sketch later turns out to be signed by Wallace Stevens, but still with no reference to its original usage. Sometimes Bly will interrupt himself to ask, "is the image clear?" Well, if it's not, how're we meant to answer? If my image of smudge-shading isn't clear, it's in keeping.

A college professor of mine was all but obsessed with Robery Bly and while I enjoy a lot of what Bly has to say, I am cautious. I remember telling my professor that Bly was too powerful a force in the poetry/literary community - that his ideas carry too much weight and that they run the risk of capsizing the whole ordeal (at least for certain writers). See, Bly likes to go on as if he knows what he's talking about, but about 40-50% of the time, he's talking shit. He's liable to contradict himself from year to year, poem to poem, and talk to talk and think nothing of it. That's all fine and dandy for him, but there's a danger in his mode of expression, too (and here I'm well aware that I'm using Bly's diction).

When Bly engages in equivocation, it's tempting to accuse him of obfuscation. The problem is that there's no direct way to address this idea of the Human Shadow. But one thing I think I can say is that his stark gender roles are the product of a free-for-all era in psychology. Like horoscopes, Jungian archetypes are fun to think about, but they're not terribly instructive and if you take them too seriously, they can be quite limiting. Bly hurts his arguments by putting the sexes into clearly labeled boxes.

It occurs to me, though, that Bly's success is probably largely due to his flexability. Just when you catch him in a contradiction (as William Booth does toward the end of the book), he merely retracts his statement and agrees to pursue another path. That bastard. Nothing phases him and he goes on to lead another round-circle meeting of repressed men trying to invoke the animus.

But despite all of this, he'll then say something charming like, "Critics usually accept the world the poet creates. If he says east is north, they say: Why didn't I think of that before!" and you love him again for his willingness to admit that we're all probably full of shit.(less)

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May 21, 2011 William rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21-ce, nonfiction, psychology

Robert Bly has this wonderful Jungian lens through which he sees the world. Here he is discussing the subconscious mind, which he represents with the metaphor of the shadow. The book is distilled from three or four poetry readings he gave in the 1970s. He wants us to be in touch with our dark side, meaning the subconcious. The metaphor of the shadow he sees is also a bag in which we are forced to put every personal attribute not desired by our parents, who want us to be only "nice." Yet we are e...more

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Apr 09, 2008 John Rogers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-favorite-reads

Simple: This book should be required reading for every human. It concisely describes the most powerful human decision making engine, which our culture refuses to acknowledge, the shadow, which has been identified as the "id" and "super-ego" by Freud and the "collective unconscious" by a smarter guy named Carl Jung, who was one of Freuds students, but discarded all the psychosis of Freud and framed it in a far more intuitive way.

Bly, a great poet/writer, describes the power we project onto other...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Jordon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Many aspects of psyche are impossible to understand unless approached through art or poetry. Bly's unique perspective as a poet brings home the reality of the dark side of human nature in a way that normal rationcinations cannot. Approaching through poetry we can simultaneously gain intimacy and detachment and be compassionately honest with ourselves. This should be required reading for psychology students.

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Aug 18, 2007 (0v0) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Bloviant. I am making up that word just for this book.

Coarse opinions masquerading as poetic depth.

When a poet has a stupid personality, it shows. Every bloviant detail. This book exposed more superficial opinions and obtuse viewpoints than I could bother to digest. It exposed me to the fact that the scholarly Mr. Bly is indeed not at all well read.

I especially love the long passage in chapter four, in which the author ravages "generalizers" (a general term for God-knows-who). He has so much ine...more

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Sep 01, 2010 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, poetry, psychoanalysis

This is one of my absolute favorite books. It has had a lasting impact on me as an artist and as a person. Poet Robert Bly gives us a lyrical introduction to Jungian concepts and to confronting one’s own dark side. At less than 100 pages, it should be required reading.

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May 31, 2009 Diana Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoy Robert Bly. Saw him in person once and his style of poetry delivery is very personal and humorous. He is very forgiving of human nature. Great stuff.

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Sep 09, 2010 Nathan Satterlee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Robert Bly describes why writing poetry is a fruitful method of drawing from our inner intelligence, focusing on our passionate sensuality, and exploring our personal darkness. This improved my writing and made me more playful, heartfelt, powerful, rich and alive. Bly is a guru who teaches the absorption and integration of shadow energy and is a master of poets and poetry.

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Jun 30, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Remembered this book and wanted to find one of the poems again....the poems that capture the shadow are the best part.

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Nov 08, 2010 Phillip Moffitt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: life-balance

An exploration of the Shadow — the dark side of the human personality — and the importance of confronting it.

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Aug 20, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

A small, rather unsettling book, but beneficial reading nonetheless. There is much to learn in this slim volume.

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May 03, 2012 Nate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: recovery, spiritual-life

Such an insightful book on the importance of confronting, accepting, and absorbing the human shadow. The only problem with this book is its length-- too short.

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Jun 12, 2011 Caterina Fake rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book merits five stars if only for the final essay on Wallace Stevens as Dr. Jekyll.

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Sep 24, 2010 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting read, though I didn't agree with everything he presents in it.

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Aug 03, 2012 Bpaul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psych-ish

Great read for me in my early 20's. Helped me out a bunch.

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Jul 13, 2011 Emily Marks added it

Shelves: shadow

I recommend this slim book as an introduction to the 'shadow'.

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Jul 14, 2009 Monika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book as an insight to the shadow side, wonderfully written!

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Jun 08, 2011 Peycho Kanev rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

Just like the magazine published by Robert Bly was typical for the 60’s, so and his poetry expresses his troubles and problem about this decade. The personal troubles and problems of the society. Bly not only attacks what he considers as tyrannical literary line, but he merciless reviews the nuclear projects and the war in Vietnam.
The tirelessly attempts of Bly to renew the American poetry and to bring it near to the achievements of the Hispanic poetry has some considerable success. Within his...more

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Dec 25, 2009 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essential

brief and clear.

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Sep 20, 2010 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars

I like Bly's little poem about the shadow I found in this book.

The Moon

After writing poems all day,
I went off to see the moon on the piney hill.
Far in the woods I sit down against a pine.
The moon has her porches turned to face the light,
but the deep part of her house is in darkness.

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Jan 22, 2012 Alvaro rated it 5 of 5 stars

I sense genius in this little but extremely insightful book. It's worth several readings, but most importantly, as the author wisely mentions, one should not venture reading it if not willing to exercise any practical change. Definitely recommended, but approach it with an open mind.

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