Anais Nin recalls a discussion she had with Dr. Otto Rank about what he termed "the double:" our need to project a part of ourselves onto others. Another doctor spoke about the same concept and how we play a persona to the world. Anais took notes:
"The acceptance of this social role delivers us to the demands of the collective, and makes us a stranger to our own reality. The consequent split in the personality may find the ego in agreement with general community expectations, while the repressed shadow turns dissenter. Failure to acknowledge this dark alter ego creates the tendency to project it onto someone in the immediate environment, the mirror-opposite to one's self. This redeems the masked self from total annihilation."
The doctor went on about the need to accept the shadow in human relationships. It is a wonderful thing when someone sees everything about you, your light parts and your dark parts, and accepts it all. It is an even more wonderful thing to accept the dark side of ourselves. Acknowledgement and acceptance of the shadow results in being conscious of the whole personality.
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