According to the founder of humanistic psychology, A. Maslow, within us lies what he calls the ‘Jonah complex’ – a fear of our own greatness.
“We fear our highest possibilities (as well as our lowest). We usually shy away from becoming what we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, in the most perfect conditions, in circumstances of the greatest courage. We enjoy and even get excited about the godlike possibilities we perceive in ourselves at such supreme moments. And yet we tremble with weakness, awe, and fear in the face of those same possibilities.”* A. Maslow
It’s easy to understand that we fear looking our Shadow in the eye because that’s where the dark and rejected part of ourselves is. It’s hard to imagine that we can fear our own greatness. But the Shadow in question, which is talked about so much in psychotherapy, not only contains the negative aspects we don’t want to see in ourselves – it also contains the positive. What makes it a Shadow is that these aspects are not realized. We only recognize them through projections onto other people. So (1) if you think about the person you most admire, and (2) name his most important quality making him so special to you, it will be easier to figure out what is the thing you also possess that longs to be expressed. If, among so many people who are worthy of admiration, you choose this particular person, it is because he has something that you also have. The only thing you need to manifest it in the world is to allow yourself to dream, take the necessary risks and do the work.
It means experiencing your own greatness.
According to Howard Sasportas, the fear of expressing our highest potential comes from the deeper layers of our psyche, over which the small self has no control. Therefore, at the core of Jonah’s complex is
“the fear of change; the fear of loss of individuality; the fear of responsibility; the fear of power; the fear of inadequacy; the fear of losing one’s voice; the fear of being on the wrong track; the fear of being thought a freak.” (“Dynamics of the Unconscious,” vol. 2)*
Exupéry said that “a man is only as big as his dreams.” And dreams are the strongest form of desire – yet we so often silence them under the pressure of common sense and the voice of realism. “Life is desire,” says Kabbalah. “Ask, and it will be given to you,” says the holy scripture.
Still, the difficulties we face and the failures we experience often discourage us from trying again. But perhaps, if we understand what lies beneath the fear of following our dreams, we can avoid Jonah’s fate?
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
(all quotes marked with an asterisk* are direct translations from Bulgarian)
