Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power & Creativity of Your Dark Side [Paperback]

David Richo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 1999

Our "shadow" is the collection of negative or undesirable traits we keep hidden—the things we don't like about ourselves or are afraid to admit: egotist, non-"PC" proclivities, forbidden sexual desires. But it also includes our positive, untapped potential—qualities we may admire in others but disavow in ourselves. Befriending the shadow makes fear an ally and enables us to live more authentically. It also automatically improves our interpersonal relationships, because we are freed from the need to project our own negativity onto others, and we become more acutely aware when theirs is projected onto us. David Richo looks for where the shadow manifests in personal life, family interaction, religion, relationship, and the world around is. He shows how to use the gentle practice of mindfulness to work with our shadow side, and he provides numerous exercises for going deeper. He is remarkably skillful at making the shadow concept not only easy to understand, but supremely practical for enhancing the quality of our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Our scared and arrogant ego has an enormous capacity not to know itself," says Esalen Institute psychotherapist David Richo. The shadow self, the dark side of the personality, is hidden in the psyche. Others often see it, but we do not. As Jung says, "The shadow is the negative side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the insufficiently developed functions and the contents of the personal unconscious....[The shadow] also displays a number of good qualities such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc." Richo has written an enormously useful book in which he introduces the reader to the conscious persona and the subconscious shadow. Unlike other practitioners, he includes conscious but negatively perceived traits in his definition of the dark side, plus undiscovered or unused positive traits. By helping the reader to befriend the shadow self instead of projecting it onto others in dysfunctional or destructive ways, the author performs a profound service, freeing emotional and creative resources through which we can manifest brighter, healthier lives. --P. Randall Cohan

Review

"Deep and spiritually challenging."—Spirituality & Health

"David Richo has written a big book, much more than a book on the shadow and its context. Shadow Dance is a poem, a paean to the psychological life, written with a great sense of culture and depth. My world has been enlarged by reading it."—Jeremiah Abrams, author of The Shadow in America and coeditor of Meeting the Shadow



"As useful a self-help book as one is likely to find."—Huston Smith

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1st edition (May 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570624445
• ISBN-13: 978-1570624445
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Richo, PhD, is a therapist and author who leads popular workshops on personal and spiritual growth.

He received his BA in psychology from Saint John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, in 1962, his MA in counseling psychology from Fairfield University in 1969, and his PhD in clinical psychology from Sierra University in 1984. Since 1976, Richo has been a licensed marriage, family, and child counselor in California. In addition to practicing psychotherapy, Richo teaches courses at Santa Barbara City College and the University of California Berkeley at Berkeley, and has taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. He is a clinical supervisor for the Community Counseling Center in Santa Barbara, California.

Known for drawing on Buddhism, poetry, and Jungian perspectives in his work, Richo is the author of How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving and The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find in Embracing Them. He has also written When the Past Is Present: Healing the Emotional Wounds that Sabotage our Relationships, Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power and Creativity of Your Dark Side, The Power of Coincidence: How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know, and Being True to Life: Poetic Paths to Personal Growth.

Richo lives in Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Teachings on how to make peace with ourselves, and the world, December 29, 2000

By 

Ruth Henriquez Lyon (Duluth, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power & Creativity of Your Dark Side (Paperback)

David Richo formerly practiced as a Catholic priest, and in this book he displays the true, original meaning of the word "catholic." His learning is truly ecumenical--he draws on his readings of the poets, Greek and other mythologies, Hinduism, Zen, and his experience of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the path into the dark parts of our human nature. Unlike many Catholic clergy whom I've met over the years, he is definitely not afraid of his shadow! Or yours or mine....he sees the shadow as containing great power and beauty, if we can only stop avoiding the teachings contained within it.

The book contains essays which lead you down the path of doing "shadow work," with each essay followed by a section of journal exercises and topics to think about. These "to do" sections help the reader to work with the ideas in the book, rather than just read about them. Not all the exercises will appeal to everyone, but there is such a wide range offered in each section that there is surely something for every reader.

My only problem with the book was that at times it was repetitive and wordy. However, Richo offers so much that is wise and profound that I readily forgave him and kept reading.

One of the things I found most helpful in this book was his excellent chapter on the positive shadow, an idea with which I was unfamiliar. The positive shadow needs attention just as much as the negative, and providing that attention is pleasant work--thus it balances out the sometimes toilsome aspect of dealing with one's darker side.

This is not a book to read and set aside. It's meant to be worked. The more people do this work, the more compassion and harmony there will be in our world.

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rough start, then it gets going...., July 5, 2003

By 

ucsf01 "garanzsl" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power & Creativity of Your Dark Side (Paperback)

This book is typical of David Richo's work: pretty good. His writing is very very scholarly and intellectual. I often wish he'd step out of his head more often and more frequently share how what he's saying directly can effect me as a person. (For application of work presented here the reader might also want to read Susan Campbell's "Getting Real", as that would give you the skills to own your anger in the moment, for example). As a therapist, I often find that some clients know a lot about whats going wrong, but they need skill building to go along with the insight. He starts applying the shadow material, and the book really gets going, only at about page 150. I felt there was too much background material on how the shadow works, which leaves me afraid to offer this book to a client; Its boring in the beginning. All in all, its a really great expository work on Jungian theory and the Shadow, and he does a great job applying Shadow concepts to real life. I love how he frames projections, and I think this is one of the better works on understanding how projection works in our lives. From a theoretical perspective I learned a lot about the shadow and applications to other cultures and sometimes my own life. After reading this book I felt intellectually overwhelmed, tired, and smarter. Fundamentally a great scholarly work, even though not really a true self-help book.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Befriending your Shadow, January 27, 2001

By 

Darren (Jersey Shore, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power & Creativity of Your Dark Side (Paperback)

"To be human is to be born into the world with something to achieve, namely, the fullness of one's human nature, and it is through the virtues that one does so...the virtues are the only guarantee against a wasted life." -Paul Waddell

Shadow Dance is an easy to understand and very helpful text for those wishing to find and then befriend all those elements we don't like about ourselves, are afraid to admit or maybe even unaware. In addition, each chapter also provides exercises that allow us to search for and accept all our positive and untapped potentials that prevent us from living a genuinely satisfying life and engaging in authentic relationships withourselves and others.

Shadow Dance is an exciting journey of mindfulness that takes you into the untapped areas of your mind and soul.