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In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind
Unconscious mind

The Unconscious is a term invented by the 18th century German philosophy romanticism philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge....
 consisting of repressed
Psychological repression

Psychological repression, or simply repression, is the psychology act of excluding Motivation and impulses from one's consciousness and holding or subduing them in the Unconscious mind....
 weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes, the others being the anima and animus and the persona. "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational
Irrationality

Irrationality is talking or acting without regard for rationality. The term is used, usually pejoratively, to describe thinking and actions that are, or appear to be, less useful or logical than other more rational alternatives....
, is prone to project: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.






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In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind
Unconscious mind

The Unconscious is a term invented by the 18th century German philosophy romanticism philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge....
 consisting of repressed
Psychological repression

Psychological repression, or simply repression, is the psychology act of excluding Motivation and impulses from one's consciousness and holding or subduing them in the Unconscious mind....
 weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes, the others being the anima and animus and the persona. "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational
Irrationality

Irrationality is talking or acting without regard for rationality. The term is used, usually pejoratively, to describe thinking and actions that are, or appear to be, less useful or logical than other more rational alternatives....
, is prone to project: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections are unrecognized "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object--if it has one--or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power." These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world.

Jung also believed that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity."

Appearance

The shadow may appear in dream
Dream

Dreams are sequence s, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping, strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history....
s and vision
Vision (religion)

In spirituality including religion, visions comprise inspirational renderings, generally of a future state and/or of a mythologyical being, and are believed to come from a deity, sometimes directly or indirectly via prophets, and serve to inspire or prod believers as part of a revelation or an Epiphany ....
s in various forms, often as a feared or despised person or being, and may act either as an adversary or as a servant. It typically has the same apparent gender as one's persona
Persona

A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a Character played by an actor. This is an Italy word that derives from the Latin for "mask" or "character", derived from the Etruscan language word "phersu", with the same meaning....
. It is possible that it might appear with dark features to a person of any race, since it represents a distant and indiscriminate aspect of the mind. The shadow's appearance and role depend greatly on the living experience of the individual, because much of the shadow develops in the individual's mind rather than simply being inherited in the collective unconscious
Collective unconscious

Collective Unconscious, sometimes known as Collective Subconscious, is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. While Sigmund Freud did not distinguish between an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the Personal unconscious unconscious mind particular to...
 (but see description of layers below).

Interactions with the shadow in dream
Dream

Dreams are sequence s, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping, strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history....
s may shed light on one's state of mind. A conversation with the shadow may indicate that one is concerned with conflicting desires or intentions. Identification with a despised figure may mean that one has an unacknowledged difference from the character; a difference which could point to a rejection of the illuminating qualities of ego-consciousness. These examples refer to just two of many possible roles that the shadow may adopt, and are not general guides to interpretation. Also, it can be difficult to identify characters in dreams, so that a character who seems at first to be a shadow might represent some other complex
Complex (psychology)

In psychology a complex is a group of mental factors that are unconsciously associated by the individual with a particular subject or connected by a recognizable theme and influence the individual's attitude and behavior....
 instead.

Jung also made the suggestion of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layers contain the meaningful flow and manifestations of direct personal experiences. These are made unconscious in the individual by such things as the change of attention from one thing to another, simple forgetfulness, or a repression. Underneath these idiosyncratic layers, however, are the archetypes which form the psychic contents of all human experiences. Jung described this deeper layer as "a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious - untouched, and perhaps untouchable - by personal experience" (Campbell
Joseph Campbell

Joseph John Campbell was an United States mythologist, writer, and lecturer best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion....
, 1971). This bottom layer of the shadow is also what Jung referred to as the collective unconscious.

According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision.

Further reading

  • Abrams, Jeremiah, and Connie Zweig. Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. Tarcher?Penguin, 1990.
  • Abrams, Jeremiah. The Shadow in America. Nataraj. 1995
  • Campbell, Joseph, ed. The Portable Jung, Translated by R.F.C. Hull, New York: Penguin Books, 1971.
  • Johnson, Robert A., Owning Your Own Shadow : Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, 128 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1993, ISBN 0-06-250754-0
  • Johnson, Robert A., Inner Work : Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for Personal Growth and Integration, 241 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1989, ISBN 0-06-250431-2
  • Neumann, Erich
    Erich Neumann (psychologist)

    Erich Neumann was a psychologist, writer, and one of Carl Jung's most gifted students. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Berlin in 1927....
    . Depth Psychology and a New Ethic Shambhala; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-87773-571-9.
  • Vandebrake, Mark. "Children of the Mist: Dwarfs in German Mythology, Fairy Tales, and Folk Legends" 135 pages. A work that interprets dwarf depictions throughout German history as shadow symbols.


External links

  • Judith Simmer-Brown, Parabola Vol.22 No.2 (Summer 1997) pp.12-18