life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a

chance to correct it… But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never

gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness. At all

counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”

Carl Jung talks about two types of shadows: the personal shadow (the unknown dark side

of our personality) and the collective shadow (the unknown dark side of society).

Starting with the personal shadow, Jung calls it:

“the thing a person has no wish to be.” It represents unknown or little-known attributes

and qualities of the ego. It is the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to

hide from ourselves. The shadow contains inferiorities which everybody has but prefers not to know

about, they seem weak, socially unacceptable or even evil. The shadow is most visible when

one is in the grip of anxiety or other emotions, under the influence of alcohol, etc., one

may suddenly blurt out a hostile remark during a friendly conversation. When we do not want

to assimilate what we despise, we project it unto others.

It is possible for one to be acquainted with one’s shadow and be partly conscious of

it, that is, under ego control. Many people, however, refuse to recognise their shadow

so completely that the ego is not even aware of shadow behaviour and thus has no possibility

of commanding it. Under these conditions, the shadow is autonomous and may express itself

in inexplicable moods, irritability and cruelty. Throughout his writing, Jung refers to the

importance of developing awareness of the shadow in psychotherapy and its projections

in the individual’s life. Although the shadow is usually perceived as negative it can also

be positive. In fact, exploring our shadow gives us access to many positive qualities,

Jung writes that the shadow: “displays a number of good qualities, such

as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc.”

One of Jung’s closest collaborators, Marie-Louise von Franz writes:

“The shadow is not necessarily always an opponent. In fact, he is exactly like any

human being with whom one has to get along, sometimes by giving in, sometimes by resisting,

sometimes by giving love – whatever the situation requires. The shadow becomes hostile

only when he is ignored or misunderstood.” The shadow contains all sorts of qualities,

strengths and potentials, which if remain unexplored, give us a state of impoverishment

in our personality, creating unconscious “snags” which inhibit the growth and embodiment of

these good qualities that lie dormant in our psyche.

For instance, a person might believe that being assertive is being rude or aggressive,

losing the qualities of confidence and the ability to speak up for himself in an honest

and respectful way, which in turn may lead to less proactivity, make it more difficult

to get a raise or job promotion, struggle with money, and so on.

So, when a person encounters an assertive person deep down he feels resentment and guilt,

which makes his shadow blacker and denser. These valuable aspects ought to be assimilated

into actual experience and not repressed, it is up to the ego to give up its pride.

We also encounter our shadow in our dreams, as a person of the same sex as the dreamer.

It is what seems to be a “criticism” of our character from the unconscious, an inner

judge of your own being that reproaches you, and the result is usually embarrassed silence.

We must identify the contents of the shadow and integrate them into our personality.

This is the process of “the realisation of the shadow”, also known as shadow work.

Here begins the painfully and lengthy work of self-education, one must enter into long

and difficult negotiations with the shadow, a work, we might say, that is the psychological

equivalent of the labours of Hercules. Through shadow work, one can observe one’s shadow

outwardly by watching one’s emotional reactions and being radically honest about one’s interactions

with others, and inwardly by exploring one’s dreams.

This allows one to become enlightened and reduces the shadow’s destructive potential,

not so much, as it were, by waging war against the darkness, but by bringing the darkness

to the light, the light to the darkness. As Jung writes:

“There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection.”

One must not strive for perfection, but rather wholeness of personality. The lifelong process

of individuation creates a balance between one’s conscious and unconscious realms,

aligning the ego to the self, the totality of one’s personality.

However scary or dark it is to confront our shadow, finding truth brings relief. Discernment

of the truth is the process of authenticity; a painstaking excavation into the depths of

our being to explore possibilities and limitations, distortions and the buried and often forgotten

parts of ourselves and abilities. Most people, however, are too indolent to

think deeply about even those moral aspects of their behaviour of which they are conscious;

let alone to consider how the unconscious affects them.

The shadow can also consist of factors that

stem from a source outside the individual’s personal life. Here is when we stumble upon

the collective shadow, the dark side or the unknown or little known aspects of a society

and culture. It consists of that which opposes our shared and collective values.

The collective shadow refers to a huge, multidimensional, often horrifying, yet elusive aspect of human

life, to an immensity of harm inflicted by human beings upon each other and the natural

world and to the vast aftereffects of such harm in subsequent generations.

We find the collective shadow in the projection of “darkness” and inferiority, in violence

and oppression, in the invisibility of current suffering, in the denial of current responsibility.

While collective shadow material may be acted out brutally in wars, massacres and genocides,

it may also hide under the often attractive cloaks of missionary activity, such as mandating

the use of particular languages, an Orwellian reality that we are experiencing in the present time.

As is the nature of all shadow material, whether

individual or collective, its existence and influence may be pervasive without being obvious.

The collective shadow manifests outwardly in atrocities, persecution, physical suffering,

sickness, poverty, malnutrition, alcoholism, crime, the death of cultures and so on.

It may also manifest more inwardly, amid the complexities of each individual psyche, as

hatred toward oneself, one’s heritage, and one’s culture, depression and feelings of

impotence, the desire for revenge (so that others might experience something like one’s

own pain), etc. The collective shadow is what has historically

been labelled “evil”. In the Christian tradition it would be the devil, and someone

who is possessed by the devil loses his human quality and acquires a demonic nature. Our

primary response to evil, for Jung, must be the quest for self-knowledge, for wholeness,

which presumes the assimilation of shadow material. The individual:

“must know relentlessly how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of”

When there is an issue known in a particular society, it can be called a shadow issue if

there is evidence of denial, projection and a lack of taking individual and collective

responsibility. Therefore, taking responsibility – morally, politically and spiritually – is

particularly crucial. The courage with which we bear our darkness frees others from having

to carry it for us. For instance, to respond to examples of massive

historical suffering: wars, genocide, holocausts, pervasive oppression, etc., the effects of

which persist. As human beings we have much to learn in that regard. Denial, often connected

with a wish to “get on with things” and “put the past behind us”, seems the most

common approach and usually the first reaction. There are and have been many attempts to deal

with difficult, painful pasts through public apologies for supporting atrocities, repentance,

reparation payments after wars, pilgrimages to places of great suffering, etc. But how

do we deal with the past in such a way that the integration of the shadow occurs deeply

and broadly within a population, rather than simply at a symbolic level through leaders

or policies? Remembering and speaking what often seems

unspeakable is inevitably a painful process for victims and perpetrators, bystanders and

witnesses. Any such process can only be regarded as successful or reasonably complete once

the pain, outrage, betrayal, suffering, and all the other feelings have been voiced and

heard and once responsibility has been taken. Truth-telling is both the most desirable and

the most feasible way to grapple with a difficult past.

One example of a terrible mass psychosis represented by the collective shadow is Nazi Germany where

people fell into the demonic nature through their personal shadow. They joined the Nazi

party and did worse things than they could have ever imagined or would have done under

normal social conditions. In this sense, the personal shadow is the bridge to the collective

shadow. Therefore, it is important to solve one’s

inner conflicts first (one’s personal shadow), so that one does not fall into the collective

shadow unconsciously. One may then later influence other people and society would be better off

as a whole. “If we practice mindfulness, we will know

how to look deeply into the nature of war, and, with our insight, wake people up so that

together we can avoid repeating the same horrors again and again… The war is in us, but is

also in everyone… Everything is ready to explode, and we are all co-responsible.”

To summarise, we must first acknowledge our personal shadow and enter into long and difficult

negotiations with it (being honest with ourselves and our interactions with others, watching

our emotional reactions and exploring our dreams), in order to not become passive victims

of our shadow and of our unconscious projections, allowing us to rescue the good qualities that

lie dormant within us, which improves our lives and the lives of those around us.

We can then be consciously aware of the collective shadow and not fall prey to it and take responsibility

to address the denial of important issues and a lack of individual and collective initiative,

the courage of bearing our darkness brings relief to others, as telling the truth is

the most desirable way to deal with a difficult past, rather than dismissing the atrocities

and having the shadow grow blacker until it can no grow no more, and thus history repeats itself.

I hope you enjoyed this video on the shadow.

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