Shadow is a term that Jung first used, to mean the aspects of a person or system that they can’t perceive. It’s specifically about something present – which others are probably experiencing in some way – which the person cannot see in themselves.
One area of shadow is everything that I judge to be bad, so I don’t want to admit it’s in me. I might be unable to see that I’m sometimes hateful, cruel, domineering, rescuing, unavailable. (Obviously I’m not in fact any of these, but they’re just examples… get it?). I might belong to a group whose identity this quality would contradict – “I’m a Christian and we don’t hate”.
There may also be positive qualities in my shadow – attributes that I have but can’t own. This might come about because
- I have a judgement about people like that.. “I don’t want to be powerful because powerful people are abusive.”
- I belong to a group where that quality is not part of our identity – “In my family the women don’t express anger”
- When I tried to express that quality I was censored in some way – punished, ridiculed, shamed. I have buried that quality and don’t bring it out. “I don’t sing (I was ridiculed as a child when I sang)”
- The quality was never encouraged or developed in me “I’m not the artistic one, my sister is.. she was the one who was sent to art classes”
Group shadow is a fascinating topic – see the definition for Split for more ideas.
How to create healthy human culture... 