A field guide to the disowned self
The parts of you that you keep in the dark are keeping you.
Everyone edits themselves to be loved. What gets cut does not disappear; it goes underground, and comes back as the people we cannot stand. A long read on Jung’s idea of the shadow, where it lives in modern life, and a short reflection to map your own.
Four chapters, eight figures, one reflection. About twenty minutes to read; six to take.
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.”
Today’s statement
In this issue
- IWhat the shadow is
Not the whole unconscious, and not simply the bad in us.
- IIHow it is made
The bag we fill before twenty.
- IIIHow it travels
At work, in love, in bed, among others.
- IVThe gold
What was too much, not what was shameful.
- VThe eight figures
A working taxonomy, each with a face.
- VIThe method
Three lenses, and what they cannot see.
- VIIThe reflection
Twenty-four statements. Six minutes.
- VIIIJung on the shadow
The passages, with sources.
- IXJung’s own shadow
The man who mapped the shadow had a large one.
- XJung’s words
Fourteen terms, each with his own sentence on it.
- XIDid Jung say it?
Ten sentences. Five are his.
Carl Jung used the word shadow for the part of the personality a person refuses to recognise as their own. Not the unconscious as a whole, and not simply the bad in us: the shadow is the specific set of traits, wants, and feelings that were sorted out of the self we present, because at some point they did not fit. His own definition is plain. The shadow ‘personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly’.2
Two words in that sentence do most of the work. Refuses: the shadow is not what we never had, it is what we have and will not own. And thrusting: it does not stay put. Disowned material has a way of arriving anyway, in a tone of voice we did not intend, a judgement that comes too fast, a resentment we cannot quite justify.
The eight figures
What people most often refuse to own, each given a name so it can be spoken to. Everyone carries all eight; the question is which are loudest.
The Furnace
Anger and assertion
Disowned anger, banked behind agreeableness. Shows up as sarcasm, silence, and irritation at blunt people.
Hides behind The Agreeable One
The Throne
Power and ambition
Disowned ambition, hidden behind modesty. Shows up as contempt for the confident and advice from the sidelines.
Hides behind The Modest One
The Orphan
Need and dependence
Disowned need, armoured in competence. Shows up as hyper-independence and a flinch at other people’s neediness.
Hides behind The Capable One
The Hungry One
Envy and desire
Disowned wanting, dressed as contentment. Shows up as precise critique of people who have it easy.
Hides behind The Contented One
The Mirror
Vanity and recognition
Disowned need to be seen, performed as humility. Shows up as scorn for self-promoters and a sting at being overlooked.
Hides behind The Humble One
The Feral
Instinct and indulgence
Disowned appetite, held down by discipline. Shows up as moral disapproval of the indulgent and rest that has to be earned.
Hides behind The Disciplined One
The Fool
Failure and inadequacy
Disowned incompetence, guarded by perfectionism. Shows up as impatience with the slow and a horror of being a beginner.
Hides behind The Competent One
The Saint
Selfishness and boundaries
Disowned self-interest, sanctified as giving. Shows up as a quiet ledger and judgement of people who put themselves first.
Hides behind The Giver
In his own words
There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection.
C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy
Twenty passages from Jung on the shadow, with sources, and three that are not his
Twenty-four statements. Six minutes. A ranked map of which figures are loudest in you now.
Begin