So, in my theology class last Friday something happened that almost made me break out laughing. I was dozing off because we were just learning about some old psychiatrists or something and something very interesting made me come to attention. We started to learn about "The Shadow and the Persona". It was a serious wtf moment. Now, apparently, this is old news, but for those of you who haven't heard (like I hadn't), Carl Jung was a famous psychiatrist who split the mind into three parts: The ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. You can read all about his stuff here, but I'm just going to quote the stuff that was read to us in class and probably the only things anyone cares about.

The Shadow

"It is the "dark side" of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there. Actually, the shadow is amoral -- neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesn't choose to do either. It just does what it does. It is "innocent." But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we can't quite admit to.

Symbols of the shadow include the snake (as in the garden of Eden), the dragon, monsters, and demons. It often guards the entrance to a cave or a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious. Next time you dream about wrestling with the devil, it may only be yourself you are wrestling with"
 
I was hoping that it would have to do with wrestling girls you know or something but, hey.
 

The Persona

"The persona represents your public image. The word is, obviously, related to the word person and personality, and comes from a Latin word for mask. So the persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious.

At its best, it is just the "good impression" we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course, it can also be the "false impression" we use to manipulate people's opinions and behaviors. And, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true nature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be!"
 

Needless to say I was sitting there trying hard not to yell "OH, SO ITS JUST LIKE IN PERSONA!" Anyway, now those terms are all stuck in my head thanks to Persona and I'm gonna ace the fuck out of the test on Monday. See, senators? Games can be helpful!

yay

Heh, cool.

Sweet, I love when game terms and mechanics pop up IRL

Carl Jung is God.

Yeah, I kind of knew "Shadow" and Persona" were real psychological terms.  However, the information that you have posted has clarified those terms more for me, so thanks!  But I have a question that maybe you can answer because you're currently studying on it: if the public image we hold, our Persona, is evil or amoral, what does that make our Shadow?  In that case, do we even have one?  Is our Shadow basically our Persona in that case?

That's awesome. 

Carl Jung confirmed to be the Final Boss in Persona 5.

I'm looking forward to a Persona: Gaiden which covers Jung's discovery of personas, and then writing a book about them. 

" Yeah, I kind of knew "Shadow" and Persona" were real psychological terms.  However, the information that you have posted has clarified those terms more for me, so thanks!  But I have a question that maybe you can answer because you're currently studying on it: if the public image we hold, our Persona, is evil or amoral, what does that make our Shadow?  In that case, do we even have one?  Is our Shadow basically our Persona in that case? "

" Carl Jung confirmed to be the Final Boss in Persona 5. "

" @FluxWaveZ said:

" Yeah, I kind of knew "Shadow" and Persona" were real psychological terms.  However, the information that you have posted has clarified those terms more for me, so thanks!  But I have a question that maybe you can answer because you're currently studying on it: if the public image we hold, our Persona, is evil or amoral, what does that make our Shadow?  In that case, do we even have one?  Is our Shadow basically our Persona in that case? "

Well, as far as I can tell, the Persona causes the Shadow. The Persona is a socially acceptable front that we put up to fit in. As we continue to change into a person we aren't, we throw everything that society deems taboo into the Shadow. This doesn't make the Shadow evil, it just makes everything in the shadow socially unacceptable. I guess by that definition they are actually polar opposites: the Shadow is everything you are, while the Persona is everything you are trying or pretending to be. I hope that hacked together explanation helps. 

" Carl Jung confirmed to be the Final Boss in Persona 5. "

" @Urmean said:

" Carl Jung confirmed to be the Final Boss in Persona 5. "

I was thinking more along the lines of Carl Jung is the hero of Persona Zero -- a prelude to the entire series and it turns out he is Igor in subsequent games. "

I always thought persona games were some sort of social commentary on the Japanese people being a bunch of closet cases.

" Carl Jung is God. "

"  I'm gonna ace the fuck out of the test on Monday. See, senators? Games can be helpful!"

Anyway, now those terms are all stuck in my head thanks to Persona and I'm gonna ace the fuck out of the test on Monday. See, senators? Games can be helpful!
 

" @Dr_Feelgood38 said:  

Anyway, now those terms are all stuck in my head thanks to Persona and I'm gonna ace the fuck out of the test on Monday. See, senators? Games can be helpful!
 

But the only thing the game did was make you aware of the word. You actually learned all this stuff in class. :| "

" Carl Jung confirmed to be the Final Boss in Persona 5. "

Maybe Carl Jung is Igor or even Philemon.

About two weeks ago, I had a Socratic seminar in my English class about some book we had to read over the summer.  And at some point during the discussion, this weird guy in the corner of the class room randomly shouts out the word "PERSONA!" in the middle of someone else's sentence, and then proceeds to talk about some psychological bullshit that happened in the book. 
 
I tried so hard not to bust out laughing cause I was expecting some big demon to appear over him and cast some spell on the guy he was interrupting.  

" @BestUsernameEver: Your username may be the best but your post does not share the same quality. Some substance would have been nice even if it was to express your indifference but, hey, I appreciate all comments. "

You'll find that Shin Megami Tensei generally doesn't pull terms out of its ass. In addition to the Persona stuff, the treatment given to the various mythological figures is generally pretty spot-on, for example. Compare to something like Xenogears, which used psychological terms pretty arbitrarily. SMT often makes me learn something or at the very least want to learn something, and that's why I still love it so much.

" You'll find that Shin Megami Tensei generally doesn't pull terms out of its ass. In addition to the Persona stuff, the treatment given to the various mythological figures is generally pretty spot-on, for example. Compare to something like Xenogears, which used psychological terms pretty arbitrarily. SMT often makes me learn something or at the very least want to learn something, and that's why I still love it so much. "

" @FluxWaveZ: Well, the big one is the relative accuracy of the mythological portrayals, but there's also many concepts and terms related to religion that can more closely parallel the use of psychological terms in Persona. 
 
For example, Digital Devil Saga is themed around Hindu/ Vedic concepts, one of the most notable being that of the chakras. The seven major chakras in order are Muladhara, Svvadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna, and Sahasrara. The idea is to move yourself from chakra to chakra, eventually obtaining union with god at Sahasrara.    
 
DDS is about a series of warring tribes each who live in a different city named after the chakras, who are told to fight in order to be able to reach Nirvana. Of course, your tribe is located in Muladhara, and you eventually go in the correct chakra order until at last you reach the final dungeon at Sahasrara.  
 
Maybe it's a bit, I dunno, literal? But the games do show they have at least a basic understanding of the terms they are using and what they are trying to convey. "

It's existed for thousands of years homeslice.