Just as players may delve into their individual shadows within the frame that archetypal enactment provides them, so too does the subculture as a whole have its own group shadow that can be enacted. Shadow is a Jungian concept of the repressed, the unknown, or unrecognizable within a consciousness. Because of the “safe space” that is often created during these forms of play-sometimes referred to as the “magic circle”-participants often find themselves free to explore psychic materials that would be considered part of the shadow. Within live action role-playing, players both consciously and unconsciously engage in and enact archetypal roles in a liminal and communal setting. Due to the unique qualities of the activities in which participants within this subculture engage, indeed because of the very fabric of the subculture itself, it becomes imperative to examine issues of psychological repression and engagement of repressed materials. The live action role-playing community as a subculture within the United States represents an aspect of repression within the greater society, just as most subcultures in some way do.
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