The Nessus Shirt frames a working understanding of Persona and
Shadow with the vivid imagery of the Greek myth of Heracles. In the
most dramatic moment of the story, Heracles finds the shirt drenched in
Nessus’ deadly potion seared to his back and irremovable. Nessus’ shirt
symbolizes the danger of one-sidedness, of overidentifying with a
Persona of heroism or goodness while suppressing the Shadow or negative aspects of the self. These two Jungian concepts “Persona and Shadow” are defined and illustrated in a way that relates to a lifetime of
personal growth and development.

The course examines good and evil, and a definition of wholeness that
incorporates these opposites with the capacity to mediate them. Jung’s
orientation toward morality is clarified in a way that participants can
grasp it and wrestle with it.

In Session 4, it defines the ectopsychic functions” thinking, feeling,
sensation and intuition” which relate consciousness to information
coming from the outside environment. More importantly, it provides the
scaffolding to understand endopsychic functions, those capacities that
relate consciousness to the processes of the unconscious. These are
recognized as:

• memory
• subjective components of conscious
• function emotions
• and affects
• invasion.

The final session offers simple exercises that help identify and engage
Persona and Shadow in refreshing ways within us.

About the Author: In the late 1950s, Chandler Brown worked with
William Kennedy, the first president of the C. G. Jung Foundation for
Analytical Psychology based in New York City. In 1960, she became
Associate Director of the Educational Center and pioneered in
communicating Jung’s insights in ways that welcomed and engaged people from all walks of life. She continued this mission as Director of
Centerpoint from 1977 to 1994.