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The Dark Shadow of Corporations

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Message Wanda Woodward
Returning to the topic of corporate shadows, it's not necessarily that these individuals at the top of corporations have shadows that are darker or larger than those in the lower levels or those who stand in opposition to the corporation although that certainly can be the case. Rather it is that the shadows these leaders cast have a much larger projection, a much larger sphere of influence because the millions of employees who work in them are paid (sometimes handsomely) to ally themselves with the psyche and behavior of the corporation. The corporation responds to the employee by abusing them (being ignored or demoted, given poor performance evaluations, terminated) if there is a failure to comply. Also, the corporations are now all in league with each other, more or less. "Thick as thieves" as they call it. Meaning that there are now thousands of corporations whose pathological psyches are all allied with each other---and that casts a truly large and pernicious dark shadow upon the entire globe and upon all life on this precious planet.

Yes, it would be quite painful for everyone to stop the psychosocial pathology. We humans are, after all, egomaniacally addicted to amassing material possession---that which is bringing about our own demise. Everyone would feel the withdrawals of the addiction---some more, some less. But we would be unfettered from the malignancy that is spreading across the globe like a cancer eating at the life support system of the earth. It would take millions of people to stop spending money on inessential goods and services, and start living a simple life connected to nature. It would require relinquishing some of the conveniences of life. We would have to buy acreage, grow our own vegetable garden, start our own community banks, and give up, among thousands of other things, SUVs, plastic bags, and bottled water. Did you know that Americans eliminate 247 million tons of municipal waste and 8 billion tons of industrial and hazardous waste every year? Think of how giving up consumerism would help alleviate landfill usage and the pollution that stems from them.

Since the desires and behaviors of these multinational corporations---and, yes, of the manufactured desires of the public---are threatening all life on the planet in the mineral, plant, animal, and human arenas, this issue of the dark shadow is no small or joking matter of which Jungian analysts are so intimately aware. Would that we could all be so aware.

Wanda Marie Woodward, M.S. is author of The Anatomy of the Soul: An Authentic Psychology which posits an original theoretical model of the Soul or Transcendent Psyche. She has plans to publish her next book, Malignant Masculine Power, which posits an original model of gender psychopathology and psychosocial pathology. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in psychology at Saybrook University. Her passions in reading are psychology, philosophy, spiritual transformation, gender studies, and social and economic justice. She loves reading, writing, gardening, and listening to classical and easy listening music. Her personal website is www.thedivinesoul.net. She can be reached at wmwoodward@msn.com.

References
Babiak, P., & Hare, R.D. (2007). Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work. New York: Harper Collins.
Bakan, J. (2005). The corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bly, R. (1988). A little book about the human shadow. W. Booth (Ed.). San Francisco: Harper Collins.
Campbell, J. (1964). The masks of God: Occidental mythology. New York: Penguin Books.
Hare, R.D. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. New York:Guilford Press.
Johnson, R. (1991). Owning your own shadow: Understanding the dark side of the psyche. SanFrancisco: Harper Collins.
Jung, C. (1959). Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the Self. R.F.C. Hull (Trans.), Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part II. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kernberg, O.F. (1975). Borderline conditions and pathological narcissism. New York: Jason Aronson.
Kernberg, O.F. (1998). Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: Theoretical background and diagnostic classification. In E.F. Ronningstam (Ed.),
Disorders of narcissism: Diagnostic, clinical, and empirical implications (pp. 29-51).Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.
Lachkar, J. (1992). The narcissistic/borderline couple: A psychoanalytic perspective on marital treatment. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Lasch, C. (1991). The culture of narcissism: An American life in an age of diminishing expectations. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Singer, J. (1972). Boundaries of the soul: The practice of Jung's psychology. New York: Random House.
Stein, M. (1998). Jung's map of the soul: An introduction. Chicago: Open Court.
Von Franz, M. (1995). Projection and re-collection in Jungian psychology: Reflections of the soul. Chicago: Open Court.
Walker, B.B. (1995) (Trans.). The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.

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Wanda Woodward, M.S., is author of The Anatomy of the Soul: An Authentic Psychology which posits an original theoretical model of the Soul, or Transcendent Psyche. She is currently writing her second book, Malignant Masculine Power: The (more...)
 
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