To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. (Don’t worry, if this sounds too abstract, it will become more concrete when you get to Part 3 of this guide.)īringing the unconscious to consciousness and integrating the shadow takes effort. That is, we’re cut off from many aspects of ourselves. When we begin doing shadow work, we tend to be what Jung called one-sided. The goal of this shadow work is to “harmonize the opposites” and move toward wholeness.

Stage 2: We integrate our shadow (make it a part of us).Stage 1: We get to know our shadow (bring it to our awareness).To simplify the process, we can break shadow work into two stages: The unconscious, disowned material is brought to bear on the conscious mind (consciousness). Simply put, shadow work is the process of getting to know the parts of yourself that you’re not currently aware of (unconscious).Īll of the stuff we tucked away in our early development-the attributes, attitudes, and qualities incompatible with our self-identity-are brought back to the surface. P.335.Ī man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour. Unconscious material is all of the stuff we don’t know. Generally, there’s FAR more unconscious material hiding from us.Īs Jung explains: 1 CG Jung.

This “psychic material” includes thoughts, feelings, images, attitudes, motivations, judgments, and impulses.Ĭonscious material is the stuff we know about ourselves. The psyche, Jung found, is comprised of both conscious and unconscious material. Whatever we disown gets relegated to our unconscious. I cover the “positive shadow” in more detail in a separate guide on psychological projection.) We cut ourselves off from many of our best qualities too. This shadow self represents the parts of us we no longer claim to be our own, including inherent positive qualities. The shadow is the “dark side” of our personality because it consists chiefly of primitive, negative human emotions and impulses like rage, envy, greed, selfishness, desire, and the striving for power.Įverything we deny in ourselves-whatever we perceive as inferior, evil, or unacceptable-becomes part of the shadow.Īnything incompatible with our chosen conscious attitude about ourselves relegates to this dark side. The shadow is a critical psychological insight from the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung. In this first segment, we’ll take a closer look at the nature of the shadow archetype.

Five Factors that Determine Resistance to Shadow Work.

How Our Self-Identity Can Hinder Shadow Integration.

What Happens When You Repress Your Shadow.

My First Direct Experience with the Shadow.

The Personal Shadow is the Disowned Self.

Shadow work journal and workbook pdf