The Harry Potter saga has become firmly established in world culture: children and adults read books and watch films several times. This fantasy universe is filled with colorful characters and has given us some of the best villains in cinematic history: Bellatrix Lestrange and Dolores Umbridge. We remember very well (and most likely sincerely hate) these characters, and this is a great merit of the actresses who played these roles. And if Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix) played a typical fanatical psychopath (in general, her role is to remember the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland), then Imelda Staunton (Umbridge) embodied in her character evil of a different order - everyday, methodical and sadistically ruthless. Much more interesting for me as a psychologist is the role she embodied as Martha in the play based on Edward Albee’s famous play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”: this role of a higher order is the world is already ours, real, and that’s why this character looks even more cruel, mortally wounding him , whom he loves more than anything in the world. Why did we believe these actresses? Why are the characters they portray, despite their obviously negative nature, so memorable and can even be attractive? An actor playing a villain will be unconvincing if he does not understand what his character is feeling, if he does not see the possibility of expressing a similar attitude in his own life story. And no, Bonham Carter and Staunton are not psychopaths or sadists, they just have good contact with their Shadows. Just let’s not get mystical, the Shadow is one of the leading parts of the personality in the theory of the famous Swiss psychiatrist, founder of analytical psychology K.G. Cabin boy. This is part of our unconscious, a repository of suppressed biological instincts, socially disapproved impulses and aspirations, rejected desires by the individual. Unjustified malice and rage, an acute sense of shame, jealousy and anger, greed and envy - all of this, in the process of growing up, “fell into the shadows”, disappeared, and ceased to appear. At the same time, as a result of upbringing, we could hide personality traits that were inconvenient for parents (self-confidence and curiosity, interest in new things, etc.), and even entire areas defined by society as something shameful (for example, human sexuality) This is how our personality develops: we appropriate something, but are forced to give up something. According to Jung and his students, everything rejected does not disappear without a trace - it is simply repressed into the unconscious, but at the same time remains alive and, moreover, retains psychic energy, which these actresses used precisely in order to convey the negative traits inherent in their characters . Sometimes in us, calm and reasonable people (that’s who we are, aren’t we?), at the most inopportune moments, it’s as if someone else suddenly wakes up, impudent and uncontrollable, destroying everything in its path. What if we could control it, if we could prevent this explosion of energy? Meeting your “second self” and seeing your own personality in it is very important for better understanding yourself and gaining control over your impulses: uncontrollable anger, stress , anxiety and even addiction are almost never a threat to such a person. Establishing contact between the conscious and unconscious in our personality will allow us not only to reduce the risks of developing personality pathologies, but also to gain additional energy and even improve relationships with others, because very often the suppressed Shadow is embodied in projection - attributing to others qualities rejected in ourselves, and then the closest people become selfish, rude, indifferent in our eyes... Of course, we will never be able to gain complete control (and therefore strangle this part of our personality), but this is not necessary: ​​the wealth of resources and energy that will be released as a result of acceptance This part of ourselves is more than enough for us to love more (ourselves, others and the world around us) and do more (create or work). What can we do to start accepting