The personality is built on whatever we identify with. One man is a sports fan; another, a Scientologist. A third man watches pornography; a fourth hyper-cleans his car. Whatever we think or do habitually is the personality. Donald Winnicott called it the false self.
Some Jungian analysts believe that the first 45 minutes after awakening are uniquely generative and creatively potent. The mind is still, savouring its experience of liminal space, and ego’s defence systems are down. The question “What’s next?” does not occur.
When something meaningful and perhaps even revelatory happens without any apparent cause, we call that a coincidence. Afterward, we’ll say it came “out of the blue,” meaning out of the depths. For every coincidence we recognize, there are a million we don’t. Everything belongs.
The judgements of young boys, as Emerson noted, are swift, confident, and summary. Eventually, they become more equivocal, less certain. Their eyes flicker. They begin to speak from the calculator in the head.
Whatever is unconscious within us—our shadow self, to deploy a Jungian term—will express itself in our behaviour. Perhaps we’ll be shocked, puzzled or ashamed by this. Buddy cavils, “That’s not me!”
Men's Work 