The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Contradictory behavior: This is the most eloquent sign of all. It
consists of actions that belie the carefully constructed front that people
present. For instance, a person who preaches morals is suddenly
caught out in a very compromising situation. Or someone with a tough
exterior reveals insecurities and hysteria at the wrong moment. Or a
person who preaches free love and open behavior suddenly becomes
quite domineering and authoritarian. The strange, contradictory
behavior is a direct expression of the Shadow. (For more on such signs
and how to interpret them, see the section on
this page
.)
Emotional outbursts: A person suddenly loses his or her
habitual self-control and sharply expresses deep resentments or says
something biting and hurtful. In the aftermath of such a release, they
may blame it on stress; they may say they did not mean any of it, when
in fact the opposite is the case—the Shadow has spoken. Take what
they said at face value. On a less intense level, people may suddenly
become unusually sensitive and touchy. Some of their deepest fears
and insecurities from childhood have somehow become activated, and
this makes them hyperalert to any possible slight and ripe for smaller
outbursts.
Vehement denial: According to Freud, the only way that
something unpleasant or uncomfortable in our unconscious can reach
the conscious mind is through active denial. We express the very
opposite of what is buried within. This could be a person fulminating
against homosexuality, when in fact he or she feels the opposite. Nixon
engaged in such denials frequently, as when he told others, in the
strongest terms, that he never cried, or held grudges, or gave in to
weakness, or cared what people thought of him. You must reinterpret
the denials as positive expressions of Shadow desires.

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