“Often he is gauche in his behavior, painfully anxious to escape notice, or else remarkably unconcerned and childishly naive.” – C.G. Jung
In the last article, we reviewed the more primitive attributes of extraverted feling as a shadow type. In this article, we will consider it as a shadow projection, and also in its more destructive oppositional role to extreme one-sidedness.
Social Feeling (EF) as Projection
As a shadow projection, extraverted feeling can cast a sour judgment onto some unlucky recipient–usually a highly gregarious, relatable, socially engaged individual. Question: Who could dislike someone so likeable? Answer: Someone with extraverted feeling as a shadow type.
When only meekly developed, still in an infantile, primitive form, extraverted feeling may be figuratively thrown onto others as a soiled projection. It can arrive as a depreciating decree–“that person is so” . . . trivial, superficial, loud, or showy.
The person carrying EF as shadow can be “gauche” and “anxious.” To avoid feelings of social awkwardness, to suppress feelings of comparative inferiority, that person may demean others more adept at social feeling.
Social Feeling as Opposition to Extreme One-sidedness
When a person becomes overly identified with the lead disposition (usually introverted thinking) the quiet social feeling in the shadow can shed its guise as a mild kitten and become a ruinous tiger.
No longer content to simply provide a mindful balance for the lead types, EF mobilizes to assertively attack and devalue the identity built from the lead disposition.
Few fairy tales or stories depict this heart-rending conflict like the film “The Best Offer.” Virgil, the lead character, is an obsessed, neurotic, unethical art dealer who is expert at distinguishing forgeries from original works of art. His one-sided, obsessive, arrogant identification with his work has rendered him virtually incapable of normal relationships. An unforeseen deception, orchestrated through his suppressed extraverted feeling, is arranged to destroy everything he most values.
Such is the role of extraverted feeling as a shadow type when the conscious disposition becomes extreme–it serves as a destructive combatant from the unconscious, seeking to undermine extreme one-sidedness and return the individual to a more centered and whole way of life.