The shadow of success.

What is the dark side of success? What is the shadow of what is presented to us as necessary in today's society? And, starting more from the beginning, what is success?

We can think of different versions of success. This changes according to the subjectivity of each one. However, in general, terms, seeking success can be interpreted as becoming “more, or better, moving forward and developing ourselves”. With the rise of consumption and materialism, this has been blurred.

What are we not seeing from the idea of ​​success? People who are economically successful often end up in a rhythm of life that distances them from others and from themselves, plunged in many cases into stress and unhappiness.

John R. O'Neill, author of the chapter The Dark Side of Success in Meeting the Shadow, takes an in-depth look at this question. This author places success indirect relationship with anxiety. The anxiety of having more and fear of losing it, going directly from a feeling of euphoria to one of great insecurity.

He also attributes this conflict to assimilate the shadow to arrogance, to the inflation of the ego. In this chaos, then, what is necessary to achieve success, usually material, is often prioritized and externalized, rejecting aspects such as the connection with the body and emotions, which later end up upbringing difficulties in the health and well-being of the person. 

At what cost is "success" conceived in today's society? What is left in the way? Health, body, bonds, emotionality, enjoyment, creativity? Can they really stay hidden without consequence?

Life in terms of economic success is extremely one-sided. It leads the subject to prioritize and accentuate aspects of himself that are compatible with the achievement of those objectives. At the same time, many essential aspects of the self are rejected or displaced. Being a great paradox finally, that the search for popular success ends up inevitably leading to non-success, suffering, illness, and loneliness.

However, this does not happen in all cases. O'Neill mentions what he calls "learners of the deep." Personalities who have been able to connect with his shadow and extract his potential from it: Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Florence Nightingale, are some of those he mentions. In these cases, for example, individuals are observed who have achieved a position of recognition, but learning from their own failures and mistakes and integrating their dark aspects.

In today's society, the demand for success is very strong, and it destroys many aspects of its path. In most cases, it takes away individuality and leaves automaton beings, who comply and obey in order to succeed. The consequence of this is observed daily in depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic illnesses, for example.

Recognizing the shadow of success that we sometimes impose on ourselves so strictly, implies the possibility of evaluating what success is for oneself, and what other side it may have. It is a way of going through the path of individuation in a more complete way, being aware of what we leave out, and helping us to balance it.

 

Thank You