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It was my first experience with 'shadowing.'

From Wikipedia - Dr. Carl Jung was the first to coin the term shadowing as the 'unconscious complex that is defined as the diametrical opposite of the conscious self, the ego. The shadow represents everything that the conscious person does not wish to acknowledge within themselves.'

Of course, BDSMer's modify anything and everything to fit into our own world and shadowing is no different.

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In shadow play, you are drawing the fear to the surface on purpose and with control so you can get passed it.

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i would add "with an extremely trusted person" - otherwise who knows what the outcome could be.

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In shadow play, you are drawing the fear to the surface on purpose and with control so you can get passed it.

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Unfortunately, in the case of shadowing, it can come upon you so suddenly that you can't help but go there,

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Wait! Which is it?

No, I basically understand what you are saying. It is an interesting post and something to think about. I like to leave creepy intense mind stuff to the professionals, but I understand that sometimes you just deal with what you got.

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ORIGINAL: curvyslavegirl

The PTSD type reaction that you're talking about is something VERY different from the jungian idea of shadowplay.

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ORIGINAL: slavejali

I get sudden bouts of irrational fear driving in a car as passenger or driver. It freaks me out, I dont seem to have any control over it. Ive got no idea what triggers it. In this shadow play, how would we deal with that one?

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ORIGINAL: curvyslavegirl

The PTSD type reaction that you're talking about is something VERY different from the jungian idea of shadowplay.

There are several therapists, especially in the Bay Area, who work with bdsm & shadow and what they speak of and study is something quite different from what you're discussing. There is some great work that people are doing on how bdsm can help heal past trauma by teaching people how to trust in situations that felt very out of control in the past. Many people recreate (either intentionally or accidentally) their past traumas with new partners. When it is in a trusting environment, sometimes it can actually help you rewrite your experiences. One story that comes to mind is a woman who had been tied up and raped and reclaimed her sexuality by allowing her girlfriend to tie her up within a negotiated scene. By reexperiencing bondage in a situation that felt out of control in a controlled way, she felt healed.
What you're talking about is very important and I applaud you for not being afraid to have these conversations outloud. Trauma work is important, but it is about your experience of another person and the effects that they have had on you. Shadow work is something different, it is about your experiences of yourself & your own humanity.

In Jungian terms the shadow isn't repressed memories, trauma or events. Its a mirror to the public sides that you put out there. Shadow work is a part of individuation. Essentially the theory is that when you have a self definition that has polar opposities to it, you can not understand the one you believe is part of your identity if you don't embrace the parts of you that match the opposite. Its the freedom lover who experiments with chains, the feminist who kneels to a man, the saint who admits to himself that it would be really exciting to steal. It's the intelligent person who can growl like an animal. It can also work the opposite way. The sadist who heals. The killer who finds mercy. It's about all of the unconcious aspects of the self that naturally exist. There is no thought of the shadow as bad or good, it is a necessity and balances the soul.
In BDSM terms, surrender of power, acknowledgement of pain & the deliberate seeking of humiliation tend to be seem as direct forms of shadowplay. Power, pain & humiliation are parts of the human experience that people usually run away from. By running TO them instead of away from them, BDSM participants are embracing shadow. They're dancing with the other sides of humanity, examining them and knowing their relationships with them in a deep & meaningful way.
If you want to know more about it there are some fabulous people working in this realm that are kink friendly. Dossie Easton (West coast) & Dorothy Hayden(East Coast) are two that come to mind.

Here is a geat quote by Hayden on the shadow
"The psychoanalyst most in tuned with the missing element in psychotherapeutic work with masochism is Carl Jung. Masochism may be imagined as cultivation of what Jung called the "shadow" - the darker, mostly unconscious part of the psyche which he regarded not as a sickness, but as an essential part of the human psyche. The shadow is the tunnel, channel, or connector through which one reaches the deepest, most elemental layers of psyche. Going through the tunnel, or breaking the ego defenses down, one feels reduced and degraded. Usually, we try to bring the shadow under the ego's domination. Embracing the shadow, on the other hand, provides a fuller sense of self-knowledge, self-acceptance and a fuller sense of being alive. Jung's idea of the shadow involves force and passivity, horror and beauty, power and impotence, straightness and perversion, infantilism, wisdom and foolishness. The experience of the shadow is humiliating and occasionally frightening, but it is a reduction to life‹to essential life, which includes suffering, pain, powerlessness and humiliation. Submission to masochistic pain, loss of control and humiliation serves to embrace our shadow rather than deny it. The result is the achievement of an inner life that accepts and embraces all aspects of our selves and allows us to live with a deeper sense of our true selves."