The teachings and theories of Carl Jung
“Where there is light, there must also be a shadow”
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist whose primary focus was on a central personality theory that revolves around synchronicity. That is, synchronizing the conscious and unconscious mind to align the “ego” and “self”.
Carl Jung based his work on the understanding that there are two parts of a whole human: one version is who we want to be, and it is known as the “ego ideal”. This is the idealized version of ourselves who works towards our goals and aspirations- the version of us that we want the world to see. The second version is where “The Shadow” comes into play. The Shadow is the version of ourselves that deals with conflict. It also is the part of us that has impulses, insecurities, and urges and basically any factor of who we are that does not align with the ego ideal.
We aren’t born with this shadow. We are just born with human instincts such as our impulses or the need for companionship, food and water, and the avoidance of pain. Through the process of growing up and becoming a part of society we establish our ego; it decides how we believe we should behave, and what aspects of our instincts and urges we need to repress according to what we see other people do. The shadow gets built as we are building our egos. It is the tug-of-war game between our ego ideal and our instinctual urges we try to repress. It typically gets pushed deeper and deeper into the unconscious mind until it starts getting projected onto other people, which is where we find qualities we don’t like about them. He referred to it as “the thing a person has no wish to be”. As it gets pushed away and we try to become less aware of it, it becomes denser. The more repressed it gets, the higher the possibility of it destroying us. This is why all of us have some form of a self-destructive tendency we let out when there is any stress in our lives.
This is why we have to look inward and face our shadow and learn to accept the existence of the qualities we try so hard to ignore. We can do this by becoming more aware of how we respond to situations we are uncomfortable in and what “triggers” us, or by discovering what components of our own personalities drive our dislike for certain qualities other people show.
Once we figure out what exactly our shadows are, we can use them to our advantage. Being aware of our shadows and figuring out how to align them with our egos can release that tension and make us more balanced people.
For example, if you’re usually a really reserved person and don’t like confrontation, your shadow is usually repressed aggression. You can balance this shadow- this deep, subconscious impulse- by using it to assert yourself in a situation you feel like you need to stand up for yourself in.
Through Carl Jung’s teachings came the Myers-Briggs personality test. TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT!!!! (the link to it is down below I am so serious stop reading and take it right now). It categorizes people into sixteen different personality types, and gives you an in-depth analysis of what your strengths and weaknesses are, (aka your ego ideal and your shadow), and how to balance your life accordingly.
For example, my Myers-Briggs type is ENFP. This means my archetype is extraverted, intuitive, feeling, and prospecting. The test gives a very in-depth description of what each of these categories mean regarding my personality, how I am in relationships, in friendships, and what career paths I would thrive in most. I cannot recommend researching something more.
Because of how fundamentally different each individual person is, better understanding your conscious versus unconscious psyche- your ego versus your shadow- is monumental in discovering how to live your life based on what you need to create and maintain that balance. It will quite literally change every. single. aspect. of your life.