The Inner world

The Quintessential idea and model of the psyche. The idea is dedicated to understanding the how's and why's of how the brain functions, and has become a staple of Psychology and neuro-science.
It is believed to have emerged many thousands of years ago, back during a time when the hearts and minds of people were put in check by The Concord, which was suddenly liberated with the emergence of the emergence of The Mad God. The subsequent impact on the mind seeing it being split into two distinct planes, a lower and an upper half.

The Upper Half, the conscious mind

The Upper half is considerably basic in comparison to it's lower counterpart, and can also be physically observed with head injuries resulting in open wounds, with white smoke emenating from the cracks. Essentially it contains all your conscious thoughts, ideas, feelings, memories and personality traits. It's everything related to elements of thought that you can percieve about yourself. The contents of this Upper Half are shaped over the course of your life. With experiences, both good and bad, you adopt certain perceptions in regards to the self. It helps govern our identity throughout life, and how we should express this identity. This includes adopting social practices, adhering to Societal structures, norms, relations and cultural codes.
This process of formation usually occurs early on during childhood, then gradually takes form as the child learns what is right and wrong, what's acceptable and not etc. The chosen expressed then form what Psychologists refers to as a "Mask". With all the conscious elements you want repressed becoming submerged into your mind, forming a shadow on your mind where all undesirabled elements of the psyche get placed.

The Lower Half, the unconscious mind

The lower half of the mind lies in the lower back of the brain, where it manifests as a dark cloud. Subsequently, severe head injuries to the backpart of the head results in black smoke coming from the wounds.
This lower part of the mind houses all "the negative traits", unknown and repressed qualities that used to reside in the upper half, it's therefore reffered to colloquially as the shadow. This psychic shadow contains all the traits that may appear as weak, socially unacceptable or even evil. It lies in the depth of the lower half, and usually lies dormant unless it becomes stoked by emotions experienced in the upper half. In these  moments of great emotion, the shadow might briefly invade the upper half of the mind and manifest in unpleasant ways. For example: getting an idea to hurt another individual for seemingly no reason, or lashing out at someone having a friendly conversation with you when you are annoyed at it's lack of progress or substance. It can also attack you in other ways, when you dream in your bed, it can manifest in various ways and alter your dreams to provide vigorous self-critique of the self.
These instances are usually written off as singular instances with no real greater bearing on the surrounding world, but some people are more prone to invasions than others. When they become aware of the contents of the shadow, many people are usually filled with dread or anxiety at the capabilities of their own being, and feel horror at the presence of the shadow.
This realisation ultimately has destructive consequences on both the individual and others around them. The most immediate consequence is that the person might have conscious problems that end up becoming worsened, and leaning heavier into already existing notions of their own being. Some never get around to acknowledging it and subsequently gives free reign for the shadow to reap havoc on your mind even further. In the worst case scenarios, it spawns what is called living nightmares, which is a direct manifestation of some repressed issue that cannot be kept in check anymore. It can also come forward in what's called a shadow form where the person begins to embody all the repressed desires and traits, and sometimes become physically deformed in turn.
Scholars of Psycho-Materialism believe there is an interplay between these two concepts, as the shadow is shaped by outside experiences that are directly influenced by Macro-level Psycho-materialism. In case of a population becoming radicalized. The Shadow can then emerge and latch onto the Upper half, with the subsequent cumultative emergence of various peoples repressed desires coming out in destructive events like genocide and ethnic cleansings
It's believed that the lower half also anchors itself, if not exists entirely within The Aetherium, hence it's wide array of access to various non-present ideas and concepts.
A final thing to note, that despite the shadow's existence, it's lashing and it's negative connotation. The shadow is not entirely evil, it's merely the opposite traits and desires you have lain dormant in your psyche. For example a psychopath's shadow is comprised of all the virtues of a "good person", i.e compassion, generosity, chastity etc. and in the case of a cumultative emergence of shadow in a population of cruel people will subsequently become incredibly kind, regretful, compassionate, usually as a result of seeing the effects of their actions.

Perpetual Tug of war

The inner world never goes away, but merely shifts itself accordingly with how ones life develops. They are stuck in a perpetual tug of war, converging in the center of the brain where they form a totality of the self, which represents everything about your being. it is believed by many philosophical scholars that the goal in ones life is to reconcile the upper and lower half through spiritual practices. There are two approaches to achieving these spiritual effects of "achieving wholeness of self".
The first revolves around the individual pulling themselves away from society, it can be into their own home, or into the wild where they will find solace in no real expectations or social demands. It is in this solitude where the individual can then ruminate on the contents of their character, looking within themselves by means of thinking or meditation. Ideally a person will be able to work the two halves together, achieving an authenthic self, freely formed by ones own self-determination and not outside influence like societal norms.
The second, which can usually help with the first one, is the act of going on an adventure. The adventurer will go on an invigorating journey where they meet people and experience things which ideally prompts them to reflect on themselves, their own views and contents of their character, experiencing a cycle of symbolic death and rebirth as they go on a grand quest for the self.
At the end of the road, the white colored upper half merges with the shadowy lower half, forming a singular whole which shines with radiant light.
A final thing to note is that while the above sounds relatively simple, i can gurantee you that it is not. Many people have many, many, many problems that serve as roadblocks in their quest of achieving wholeness. Many are faced with so many methods to how they can achieve this wholeness of the self by following certain philsophies, that they become overwhelmed by choice and never get to mend the two halves as they are too busy exploring what is the right way. Others just never bother even thinking about it, most can't even do it because they lack the will to even start, few succeed.

Affected Groups

Everyone

Type

Mental

Children

• Aurumfication

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Common