Our conscious self is what we admit to being. Our unconscious shadow is the part of us that we attempt to suppress, the part of us that our family, friends, employers, coworkers, associates, clients, neighbors, and society tells us to discard. Our shadow emerges from the unspeakable things that we discover about the world and ourselves. Both the magnificent as well as the bizarre residue of prior experiences lies buried and unconfessed in the fissures of our unconscious mind. The less a person__ shadow is embodied in a person__ conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.
Perhaps nothing so accurately characterizes dysfunctional families as denial.
Bradshaw on the Family: A New Way of Creating Solid Self-Esteem
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Perhaps nothing so accurately characterizes dysfunctional families as denial.
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Denial returned, like a nagging cough you can never quite shake. Actually, it was always close at hand, and even though "satanic ritual abuse" did describe what had happened to me when I was a child. the concept was so foreign and so horrific that some part of me still wanted to stay in denial.Devil worship dominated my childhood. That was undeniable, even if it was still nearly impossible to contemplate. Both of my parents and any number of their friends, as well as "respected" members of our community, had worshipped Satan.I pushed the notion aside with all the power I could muster. I kept thinking to myself that it was ridiculous and impossible.p157
What is that?_ Addison inspects the food with a look of sheer revulsion on her face. You__ swear I just handed her a plate full of arsenic. __he Works Burger with fries and extra onions and cheese, exactly as you ordered._ I keep my voice level.She sends me a scathing look. __o I look like I__ ever consume that amount of saturated fat?
He knows I__e seen something in him. Something I recognize, only because it exists in me too.