Not long ago I got to go an amazing talk by Dr. James Hollis, and my good friend MO2YP has encouraged me to share what I learned there here. It was called Why Good People Do Bad Things, and I am sure any dedicated SW fan can believe such a topic would be relevant to almost any character in our beloved saga as it is overflowing with people who would fit the description of a good person doing a bad thing. Even characters like Palpatine or Tarkin would probably fit that description if someone were willing to mine their pasts with the sort of detail given to Vader's.

The talk surprised me in lots of ways because on some level I had expected a talk about other people, when really it was a talk aimed as much at me as every other person in the room including Hollis himself. At its core was this bit of wisdom: "nothing human is alien to me." We all contain the entire spectrum of human possibility from love to hate and everything in between. The issue is not that we feel, but what we do with our feelings. Luckily for us there are people out there like George Lucas who are paying attention to all of the things we do and say when we're not thinking and then mirror them back to us in characters like Anakin, Padme, Luke and Leia (now there's a dysfunctional family if I ever saw one!).

In Jungian Psychology there's this concept of The Shadow. Everyone has one, and it consists of everything that contradicts what a person likes to think about themselves. For instance, I like to think of myself as a "nice" person, but just the other day at the supermarket I was confused about how the lines worked (it was a new place and set up in an odd way), and an old man came up to me and said, "Which line are you in?" I started to say "I'm not really sure how it works. I think there's one line and you just go to the register that opens up first...." But he cut me off and just repeated "Which line are you in?" To which I snapped "Why don't you go in that line and I'll go in this one!?" It came out of "no where" anger just bubbling up like lava on Mustafar. That's Shadow. In my case it was unconscious anger that came to the surface and snapped out at some poor person, and afterwards I felt ashamed that it all gushed out like that in such an out of control way.

Now Shadow can be expressed in many ways and is often the reason politicians and clergy get in so much trouble. They appear on the surface to set and live by a high moral standard and then low and behold some priests are abusing children and everyone's covering it up, or the congressman dedicated to keeping kids safe from predators on the web is text messaging the underage pages (or something like that).

Another important idea is that Shadow is also what we are unaware of in ourselves because it is unacceptable to our sense of self. My being angry violates what I like to believe about myself, so when my husband said my anger frightened him at times I was shocked. I was so unaware that I was angry I thought it was a feeling that I rarely expressed - little did I know how much I seethed because it hid out in my unconscious.

Anyways there are four basic ways that the Shadow operates in people, and of course in SW:

First, there is the time honored repress and suppress. The Jedi Order was great at this one. Pretend all that nasty stuff just isn't there. It's practically written into their code: There is no emotion there's only the Force. I think a greater truth would be: There is emotion and there is the Force. Some other choice examples from the JO would be: "The Sith have been extinct for a millennium." and "I don't think the Sith could have returned without our knowing it." and " The council is confident in its decision Obi-Wan" and "Anakin escort the senator back home to Naboo." But just because the Jedi turned away from an issue doesn't mean it wasn't there. Meanwhile the Shadow contaminates interactions (Palpatine) and comes out in moments surprising everybody (Maul) until it's swept under the rug again (or until things get so bad the whole system comes crashing down - like the clergy abuse scandal or the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire). Anakin is also phenomenal when it comes to repress and suppress. Padme actually offers him the best advice he's ever gotten when it comes to anger: "To be angry is to be human." If Anakin could have let that in his anger would have stopped controlling him from behind the scenes. But Anakin can't tolerate anger in himself (or fear). It violates what he would like to believe is true about him as a Jedi. Another good example is "Jedi don't have nightmares." Why ever shouldn't they? Nightmares are nothing more than information. Anakin is human and "nothing human is alien to him.", but he was stuck in a system (as we all are) that in some ways didn't allow him to be himself.

Secondly, there is projecting the Shadow onto someone else. "It's all Obi-Wan's fault. He's jealous! He's holding me back!" Obviously Anakin is the one who's jealous here, but he won't admit it so he gives that feeling to Obi-Wan who I'm pretty sure doesn't even have a jealous bone in his body.

Third is possession by identification. The classic example is Anakin becoming Vader. He identifies with all of that darkness and in a way becomes it. Interestingly enough Padme also fits here, and the name of her alter ego is Mrs. Skywalker. This is the reason for her sudden "out of character" behavior in marrying Anakin and doing what she said she never would: live a lie. Think of it. If her story was front page news in your paper tomorrow: Prominent politician found to be involved in a secret affair with a powerful member of the (supposedly) celibate clergy. You'd be surprised for half a second until you remembered "She's a politician and they're not to be trusted." But all kidding aside, even a person like Padme, with loving parents and a solid education who seems as steady as they come is susceptible to Shadow - because she's human just like us.

Finally, we have Shadow becoming more conscious, a kind of facing your demons. This is the last option, and the one that could help save the world (and does save the GFFA). The thing about what we repress or project or allow to possess us is that it will eventually rear its ugly head and spill out over all we hold dear in the world if we don't try to understand our motives that hide even from ourselves. Anakin's potential to be Vader was born practically when Anakin was born. Many people including myself have written about how his time as a Sith Lord was basically nothing more than a repetition of his younger life as a slave. Anakin himself would never have admitted that or understood that. He was too unaware. According to Anakin he was freed the moment Watto lost him betting on the Pod-Races, but we know his freedom took decades longer to win. The truth is (according to Jung and Hollis) that we all have these places of unawareness, and our only hope to keep from just re-playing and re-playing all the old crap that lives in the dark corners of our minds is instead to become aware of it and bring it out into the light. For instance, my new mission is to acknowledge my anger whenever it comes up. So, I can let it go and it doesn't explode. We all have "Vader" moments, the point is to acknowledge them and learn from them, not ignore them. It's hard and humbling, but it's the best chance for growth. The problem is that the Shadow is literally what we are unconscious and unaware of. The trick is to catch it in those moments when it bubbles up (like when I was in line at the supermarket). Anger isn't bad ("to be angry is to be human") but repressed and suppressed anger (or fear, or birds and bees issues, or you name it) is what leads to "Good people doing bad things."

That's what I got from the lecture, but there was another point that was missing that I think SW helps to illuminate which is: Why "bad" people do "good" things. When I heard the idea of the Shadow coming out by being possessed by it and identifying with it (again Anakin becoming Vader) I couldn't help but wonder what happens to the "good" side and all of the qualities we associate with goodness like compassion, trust, connection, and love when someone is possessed by the dark side. It seems to me to make sense that when someone identifies with their Shadow side that it is in some ways no longer Shadow. It is that person's new mode of operation. It is what they now think of themselves. The things that run counter to that view like compassion, trust, connection, and love are now the new Shadow. These repressed ideas then come out in moments to the surprise of everybody. For instance, when Vader doesn't kill Luke in ESB though he clearly has the advantage. Vader shows mercy at absolutely no other time up until this point. His mercy is as "out of character" as lying was for Padme. Not only that when Vader's trap doesn't work and he can't just freeze his son in carbonite to cart him off to the Emperor his new Shadow takes over and I think part of him believes that if Luke just knew about the truth of their relationship the strength of that connection would cause Luke to join him. It was weirdly a test of love, and a completely bungled attempt to reach out - to connect.

Another example is when Vader can sense Luke on Endor when Palpatine cannot. To me that demonstrates a deepening connection, something that Vader hasn't really had with another human being since the end of the ROTS. In ROTJ Palpatine asks if Vader's feelings on "this matter (of his son) are clear." Vader answers yes, he's ready and willing to turn his son to the dark side. I don't think Vader even realizes he's lying, because the goodness being expressed is coming from his new Shadow, and that Shadow consists of all the good things he tried to banish from himself when he began to believe that he was a bad person.

Lastly, the most purely evil character in the Saga, Palpatine, who seems entirely possessed by the dark side from moment one is undone by the trust and compassion he buries in himself and doesn't acknowledge. It is significant that the only tender moment he ever displays is towards Anakin's smoking remains on Mustafar. Also, in the ROTS novelization Mace realizes right before he dies that Palpatine trusts Anakin. As Ian McDiramid puts it "Anakin means something to him." His trust is so ingrained and so blind that the Emperor believes he can kill Luke right in front of his own father and Vader won't do a thing. Well, I guess it's true Vader didn't lift a finger - that was Anakin. To me this is what makes Anakin/Vader so compelling. He's a complete character. He runs the whole spectrum. Nothing human is alien to him and I think in the end he understands that.

MTFBWY