shame

The encounter with the Shadow: a key moment on the journey to individuation

The shadow, Applied Jungian Psychology, The Wolf of Wall Street Discussion about the shadow can be split into three broad categories: Everything has a shadow – more specifically, every choice, every action, and every encounter, carries within itself a shadow. This is the simple idea that what is explicit, what is seen, what is manifest holds an implicit opposite. Our intentionality is directed to the “object” in a specific fashion. The philosopher John Searle describes it as consciousness having an "aspectual"...

Trauma, Emptiness and Failure to Relate in Steve McQueen’s “Shame”

This is a guest post by Helena Bassil-Morozow. The opening scene of Shame (2011) is shocking in its colourlessness and stillness: the film’s protagonist Brandon (Michael Fassbender), with his hand almost on his groin, is lying in bed looking rather dead. The shot’s colour temperature is cold; the mis-en-scene’s minimalism – the still naked body against the background of blue-white sheets – evokes associations with hospital rooms and mortuaries. The bird’s-eye shot lasts half a minute and looks almost like...