It would seem fair to conclude that there is a close affinity between the complexes (split-off materials) and the Shadow. Perhaps the complexes (also the result of incompatibility with the conscious personality) are the negative part of the Shadow. Perhaps they just reside in it, on closely collaborate with it, in a feedback mechanism. To my mind, whenever the Shadow manifests itself in a manner obstructive, destructive or disruptive to the Ego we can call it a complex. They are one and the same, the result of a massive split-off of material and its relegation to the realm of the unconscious.

This is part and parcel of the individuation-separation phase of our infantile development. Prior to this phase, the infant begins to differentiate between self and everything that is NOT self. He tentatively explores the world and these excursions bring about the differentiated worldview.

The child begins to form and store images of his self and of the World (initially, of the Primary Object in his life, normally his mother). These images are separate. To the infant, this is revolutionary stuff, nothing short of a breakdown of a unitary universe and its substitution with fragmented, unconnected, entities. It is traumatic. Moreover, these images in themselves are split. The child has separate images of a "good" mother and a "bad" mother linked to the gratification of his needs and desires or to their frustration. He also constructs separate images of a "good" self and a "bad" self, linked to the ensuing states of being gratified (by the "good" mother) and being frustrated (by the "bad" mother). At this stage, the child is unable to see that people are both good and bad (can gratify and frustrate while maintaining a single identity). He derives his sense of being good or bad from an outside source. The "good" mother inevitably and invariably leads to a "good", satisfied, self and the "bad", frustrating mother always generates the "bad", frustrated, self. This is too much to countenance. The "bad" mother split image is very threatening. It is anxiety provoking. The child is afraid that, if it is found out, his mother will abandon him. Moreover, mother is a forbidden subject of negative feelings (one must not think about mother in bad terms). Thus, the child splits the bad images off and uses them to form a separate image. The child, unknowingly, engages in "object splitting". It is the most primitive defence mechanism. When employed by adults it is an indication of pathology.

This is followed, as we said, by the phase of "separation" and "individuation" (18-36 months). The child no longer splits his objects (bad to one repressed side and good to another, conscious, side). He learns to relate to objects (people) as integrated wholes, with the "good" and the "bad" aspects coalesced. An integrated self-concept follows.

In parallel, the child internalises the mother (he memorises her roles). He becomes mother and performs her functions by himself. He acquires "object constancy" (=he learns that the existence of objects does not depend on his presence or on his vigilance). Mother returns to him after she disappears from his sight. A major reduction in anxiety follows and this permits the child to dedicate his energy to the development of stable, consistent, and independent senses of self and (images) of others.

This is the juncture at which personality disorders form. Between the age of 15 months and 22 months, a sub-phase in this stage of separation-individuation is known as "rapprochement".

The child, as we said, is exploring the world. This is a terrifying and anxiety producing process. The child needs to know that he is protected, that he is doing the right thing and that he is gaining the approval of his mother while doing it. The child periodically returns to his mother for reassurance, approval and admiration, as if making sure that his mother approved of his newfound autonomy and independence, of his separate individuality.

When the mother is immature, narcissistic, suffers from a mental pathology or aberration she does not give the child what he needs: approval, admiration, and reassurance. She feels threatened by his independence. She feels that she is losing him. She does not let go sufficiently. She suffocates him with over-protection. She offers him much stronger emotional incentives to remain "mother-bound", dependent, undeveloped, a part of a mother-child symbiotic dyad. The child develops mortal fears of being abandoned, of losing his mother's love and support. His dilemma is: to become independent and lose mother or to retain mother and never be his self?

The child is enraged (because he is frustrated in his quest for his self). He is anxious (losing mother), he feels guilty (for being angry at mother), he is attracted and repelled. In short, he is in a chaotic state of mind.

Whereas healthy people experience such eroding dilemmas now and then to the personality disordered they are a constant, characteristic emotional state.

To defend himself against this intolerable vortex of emotions, the child keeps them out of his consciousness. He splits them off. The "bad" mother and the "bad" self plus all the negative feelings of abandonment, anxiety, and rage are "split-off". The child's over-reliance on this primitive defence mechanism obstructs his orderly development: he cannot integrate the split images. The Bad parts are so laden with negative emotions that they remain virtually untouched (in the Shadow, as complexes). It is impossible to integrate such explosive material with the more benign Good parts.

Thus, the adult remains fixated at this earlier stage of development. He is unable to integrate and to see people as whole objects. They are either all "good" or all "bad" (idealisation and devaluation cycles). He is terrified (unconsciously) of abandonment, actually feels abandoned, or under threat of being abandoned and subtly plays it out in his/her interpersonal relationships.