Dark Passenger

The Dark Passenger is a concept that represents the demon inside that makes us do terrible things.

“I just know there's something dark in me. I hide it. I certainly don't talk about it. But it's there. Always. This ‘Dark Passenger.’ And when he's driving, I feel...alive. Half sick with the thrill of complete wrongness. I don't fight him. I don't want to.” Dexter

Psychiatrist Carl Jung describes those aspects of the personality that we choose to reject and repress as the Shadow. He saw the psyche as something that could be divided into component parts which function like secondary selves that contribute to the whole. “No one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real.”

Have you ever said or done something really shitty, mostly on an impulse, that you later regretted? In this moment the lack of control you had betrays the existence of a different person lurking beneath.

The Dark Passenger can also refer to an addiction, such as for a drug, and other distinctive dark desires. If you give in, you're no longer driving behind your own actions, and your darker self does whatever it wants until you're left with only wreckage and aftermath.

See also: feeding the alligators

“The Dark Passenger has been with me ever since I can remember, pulling the strings, running the show, but as it turns out, I'm no puppet.”

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