(Our "shadow" is the collection of negative or undesirable traits we keep hidden?the things we don't like about ourselves or are afraid to admit: egotist, non-"PC" proclivities, forbidden sexual desires. But it also includes our positive, untapped potential?qualities we may admire in others but disavow in ourselves. Befriending the shadow makes fear an ally and enables us to live more authentically. It also automatically improves our interpersonal relationships, because we are freed from the need to project our own negativity onto others, and we become more acutely aware when theirs is projected onto us. David Richo looks for where the shadow manifests in personal life, family interaction, religion, relationship, and the world around is. He shows how to use the gentle practice of mindfulness to work with our shadow side, and he provides numerous exercises for going deeper. He is remarkably skillful at making the shadow concept not only easy to understand, but supremely practical for enhancing the quality of our lives.

"Our scared and arrogant ego has an enormous capacity not to know itself," says Esalen Institute psychotherapist David Richo. The shadow self, the dark side of the personality, is hidden in the psyche. Others often see it, but we do not. As Jung says, "The shadow is the negative side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the insufficiently developed functions and the contents of the personal unconscious....[The shadow] also displays a number of good qualities such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc." Richo has written an enormously useful book in which he introduces the reader to the conscious persona and the subconscious shadow. Unlike other practitioners, he includes conscious but negatively perceived traits in his definition of the dark side, plus undiscovered or unused positive traits. By helping the reader to befriend the shadow self instead of projecting it onto others in dysfunctional or destructive ways, the author performs a profound service, freeing emotional and creative resources through which we can manifest brighter, healthier lives. --P. Randall Cohan

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