Thomas Ramey Watson

Owning the Dark Side or Shadow

I am appalled by the racism that seems to express its

elf so freely in our country now, not just toward blacks but everyone the “slingers” do not see as one of them.  As a therapist, I recognize such folks as people at war within, though they hardly recognize it as such.  It’s much less threatening to see the danger as lying outside

themselves where they project it.

Again, I am reminded of the necessity of self-examination, of owning our darker, more aggressive, and ugly impulses.  That does not make such impulses go away, but it certainly lessens the power they have over us.  We can recognize them and decide what to do with them, instead of lashing out uncontrollably and

without conscience or intellect

or emotional control.

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