Carl Jung: Thirteen Quotations on the Shadow


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. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.

Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14




Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

“The Philosophical Tree” (1945). In CW 13: Alchemical Studies. P.335




The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces.

Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.25




Whenever contents of the collective unconscious become activated, they have a disturbing effect on the conscious mind, and contusion ensues. If the activation is due to the collapse of the individual’s hopes and expectations, there is a danger that the collective unconscious may take the place of reality. This state would be pathological. If, on the other hand, the activation is the result of psychological processes in the unconscious of the people, the individual may feel threatened or at any rate disoriented, but the resultant state is not pathological, at least so far as the individual is concerned. Nevertheless, the mental state of the people as a whole might well be compared to a psychosis.

“The Psychological Foundation for the Belief in Spirits (1920). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.595




Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.

“Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131




We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women who pass by without exciting attention, and who betray to the world nothing of the conflicts that rage within them except possibly by a nervous breakdown. What is so difficult for the layman to grasp is the fact that in most cases the patients themselves have no suspicion whatever of the internecine war raging in their unconscious. If we remember that there are many people who understand nothing at all about themselves, we shall be less surprised at the realization that there are also people who are utterly unaware of their actual conflicts.

“New Paths in Psychology” (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.425




It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster’s body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware.

“On the Psychology of the Unconscious” (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35




If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against… Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.

“Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.140




Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it.

The Integration of the Personality. (1939).




We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enormous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together.

“Answer to Job” (1952). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.1




The world is as it ever has been, but our consciousness undergoes peculiar changes. First, in remote times (which can still be observed among primitives living today), the main body of psychic life was apparently in human and in nonhuman Objects: it was projected, as we should say now. Consciousness can hardly exist in a state of complete projection. At most it would be a heap of emotions. Through the withdrawal of projections, conscious knowledge slowly developed. Science, curiously enough, began with the discovery of astronomical laws, and hence with the withdrawal, so to speak, of the most distant projections. This was the first stage in the despiritualization of the world. One step followed another: already in antiquity the gods were withdrawn from mountains and rivers, from trees and animals. Modern science has subtilized its projections to an almost unrecognizable degree, but our ordinary life still swarms with them. You can find them spread out in the newspapers, in books, rumours, and ordinary social gossip. All gaps in our actual knowledge are still filled out with projections. We are still so sure we know what other people think or what their true character is.

“Psychology and Religion” (1938) In CW II: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P. 140




No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans, the demons will seek a new victim. And that won’t be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey…. We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.

“The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans” (1945)




To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.

“Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology” (1959). In CW 10. Civilization in Transition. P.872




A 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.

“The Philosophical Tree” (1945). In CW 13: Alchemical Studies. P.335




 

22 Comments

  1. These are great quotes (and I like the alchemical 13 in number). They actually help me maintain my resolve, this is such difficult work as I am sure you know. Thanks.
    (PS I have pinched one of the quotes for my blog)

  2. Does Jung provide a discussion or a systematic approach to the shadow journey?
    Can you refer to a summary of the path to integration?

    I read much in my younger days, however, time and travels have taken their toll. These collected quotations are good reference/reminders, still, too much gets away from me . . . .

    So grateful if you can help.

    – – – R.

  3. when i was a young man i used to take a lot of drugs. One night (about 20 odd years ago) i ingested a particularly strong dose of LSD. the resultant trip was a heavy one .one in which i came into contact with my shadow ( an ecstatic vision of myself as a Victorian villain type bent double black n cancerous all the repressed swill made manifest ) i was very frightened n horrified by what it revealed it was a tipping point in my life. my many dissatisfactions could no longer be convincingly projected onto the outside cos “its me that’s rotten after all” . my previous modes of dealing with things , my transcendant functions if you like, such as playing music slowly started to flake away leaving nothing other than a raw slag heap of pain n confusion. i sought an out in heroin.
    i stuck with it (heroin) through my mid twenties to late 30s when i finally got clean. i read a biography on Carl Jung by Colin Wilson about seven years ago in which he quoted Jungs story about his own confrontation with his shadow… the hairs on the back of my neck rose in revelatory shivers. pure epiphany…i know hes still there n very powerful but ( through writing,drawing playing music…art basically) i can acknowledge him
    and utilize his energy n drive in a way that i had no notion of Pre-Jung… o

  4. The first time I saw the Phantoms Paradise, Paul Williams….the song “the phantoms theme” (all this is similar to phantom of the opera… beauty and the beast… Faust) reminds me of Carl Jung and the shadow self. Love this song… beautifully describes the only authentic true way out… in.
    Verse 1]
    Half asleep I hear a voice
    Is it only in my mind
    Or is it someone calling me
    Someone I failed and left behind

    [Chorus]
    To work it out I let them in
    All the good guys and the bad guys that I’ve been
    All the devils that disturbed me
    And the angels that defeated them somehow
    Come together in me now

    [Verse 2]
    Face to face I greet the cast
    Set in silence we begin
    Companions in an empty room
    I taste their victory and sin

    [Chorus]
    To work it out I let them in
    All the good guys and the bad guys that I’ve been
    All the devils that disturbed me
    And the angels that defeated them somehow
    Come together in me now

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