Deepak Chopra, the renowned exponent of personal transformation and integrative medicine, has been analyzing Donald Trump from afar. His findings, in a blog on his personal website, offer an unconventional, psychological take on the Trump phenomenon.
He also offers some thoughts on how to handle your personal pre-election tension.
The thought of Trump reaching the White House is casting a long shadow over many Americans’ lives right now. Chopra uses the ‘shadow‘ – a metaphor that was developed by the pioneering psychologist Carl Jung – to explain Trump’s astonishing rise.
He describes the shadow as a compound of the dark impulses like hatred, aggression, sadism, selfishness, jealousy, resentment, and sexual transgression that are normally hidden. He writes:
“The rise of civilization is a tribute to how well we obey our conscious mind and suppress our unconscious side. But what hides in the shadows will out. When it does, societies that look well-ordered and rational, fair and just, cultured and refined, suddenly erupt in horrible displays of everything they are not about: violence, prejudice, chaos, and ungovernable irrationality.”
That sounds about right. As Chopra sees it, Trump has unwittingly tapped into the enormous, dark powers that lurk in the shadows. And he’s loving it:
“When Trump indulges in rampant bad behavior and at the same time says to his riotous audiences, “This is fun, isn’t it?” he’s expressing in public our ashamed impulse to stop obeying the rules….Trump has stripped away the facade, intoxicated by the “fun” of letting his demons run and discovering to his surprise (much as Nixon did) that millions of people roared with approval. Yet by comparison, Nixon retained relative control over the forces he unleashed, while Trump may be riding a tiger. That part of the story has yet to play itself out.”
So how should we respond as that shadow stretches farther? Chopra says:
“The present situation finds us trapped between denial and disaster. Denial is when you ignore the shadow; disaster is when you totally surrender to it. Without being at either extreme, right now many Americans feel the unsettling symptom of being out of control.”
He offers these five ways to approach the problem and regain some personal control:
- See Trumpism for what it is, a confrontation with the shadow.
- Instead of demonizing him, acknowledge that the shadow is in everyone and always has been.
- At the same time, realize that the shadow never wins in the end.
- Find every opening to reinforce the value of returning to right and reason in your own life.
- Don’t fight the shadow with the shadow, which means not stooping to play by Trump’s nihilistic rules — he will always be willing to go lower than you are willing to go.
As Chopra once told Conan O’Brien:
“Some people are beyond hope”
Watch Deepak Chopra calling Trump, “Emotionally and mentally retarded” during this radio segment:
Featured Image: Screenshot Of Video Via YouTube.
