Shadow Work – A Critical Commentary

When browsing public channels on various platforms that deal with Jungian psychology, one is struck by how frequently “shadow work” appears. It seems to be mostly young men, who don’t appear to have studied Jung to any significant extent, who are fascinated by and encourage this "work."

As someone who has studied Jung and Jungian literature for a long time, I don’t recognize this focus on so-called shadow work in the sources at all. It actually seems to be a modern internet phenomenon rather than something genuinely Jungian.

Yes, it is of course true that the “shadow” is a central concept in Jungian psychology, and it is true that Jung stated that it is "a therapeutic necessity for the ego to confront its shadow" (CW 14, par. 514) – but this shadow work they speak of, where does it come from? Because it certainly doesn’t come from Jung or any influential Jungians.

What is the shadow according to Jung? It is simply hidden or unconscious aspects of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge and often project onto others. For a person who has never engaged in any significant self-reflection, let alone therapeutic work, the shadow is, in essence, the unconscious, plain and simple. This is especially true for young men, "who only recently emerged from the mists of original unconsciousness." (CW 17, par. 327.)

When Jung says that it is necessary for the ego to confront its shadow, he means that a person in analysis, as a result of a “neurotic outbreak,” must turn his gaze toward those aspects of himself that he has dismissed or remained unaware of for most of his life. That is where, with great certainty, the cause of the symptoms lies, but the patient has avoided it because it is painful, not least for his self-image. This “confrontation” leads to insights that can untie the knots and thereby free the patient from the psychological distress that led him to seek out a psychologist. This likely takes quite a long time and is a recurring part of the analytical conversations, which may revolve around the patient’s dreams.

Is this something one can do on one’s own? Yes, an insightful and honest person with strong morals, who has a functioning dialogue with, for example, his dreams, can absolutely uncover aspects of his shadow.

How does one do it, then? the reader might wonder. The answer, if we stick to Jung and Jungian analysts, is that there is no technique; it is something entirely individual, and it looks different for different people. (Sharp, 1993.) It’s not about doing “shadow work” to “integrate the shadow” and then being done with it. It’s more about a gradual and continuous process of making conscious what was previously unconscious, by paying attention to one’s dreams, projections, affects, fantasies, and impulses over time, while remaining vigilant against the ego’s tendency to deceive itself. “[A] long process of negotiation is unavoidable.” (Ibid.)  

Shadow is not a “thing” that one “integrates,” but rather a continuously unfolding dynamic. You don’t get rid of your shadow; it is constantly being shaped and re-shaped. When I was a young adult living a rather unstructured life with my writings, my bars, and my friends, one could have described my shadow in a certain way. Twenty years later, as a full-time professional for many years, with wife, children, house, and a considerably greater responsibility on all fronts, my shadow looks different. If I had “integrated” my shadow when I was twenty-five years old (however that would have been done), it wouldn’t have made much difference in regards of my shadow today.

Integrating the shadow, to use the popularized term, is more a matter of patient negotiations, compromises, and, as Jung called it, moral courage in relation to the inevitable conflicts that arise. The shadow should not be seen as a noun so much as a verb; shadowing is ongoing all the time. Becoming aware of the shadow is not a project but rather a way of life; it is part of the continous dialogue with the unconscious.

Yes, it’s vague, troublesome, time-consuming, and individual. So how did this almost insurmountable mess, which places such a great responsibility on the ego and thus becomes a moral problem as well, become so popular, especially among younger men on the internet?

The shadow is often described as “the darkness within us,” which, according to the wise old man Carl Gustav Jung, one needs to overcome. I think this fantasy activates archetypal notions regarding initiation and heroic deeds. Within all of us, we have these universal notions seeking expression (to a greater or lesser extent). As is well known, humanity, across all times and places, has had initiation rites for older boys, a ritualized transition that turns them into men which often included fear and pain. Today, we have no cultural rites of passage, or only entirely watered-down ones. But the archetype doesn’t change with culture (even though its manifestation takes on a cultural hue). It still lies there as an expectation waiting to be fulfilled. Without knowing it, perhaps, I want to be initiated and perform great deeds. But what am I to be initiated into, by whom, and what is to be fought?  

Depending on temperament and circumstances, shadow work aimed at overcoming the darkness within us becomes an initiation and a great deed for a young man – a hero’s journey.  

Well, isn’t that a good thing? No, I don’t think so, for mainly a couple of reasons. Shadow work in this sense is a vulgarization of Jung’s psychology that “sells” – it generates clicks, attention, and often actual money; it becomes a kind of fraud. But more seriously, one can see young men on open discussion forums who have bought into this vulgar “method” and, frankly, feel very bad about their own “shadow work.” They don’t necessarily say it openly, but one gets the sense that they thought they would obtain the Holy Grail, but instead, only confusion and anxiety remains. For a young man to engage in shadow work, of all activities, can be downright unhealthy, especially when it is motivated by ego-centered motives (never a good attitude when working with the unconscious) – that is, the ego wants to achieve something with it, for its own sake. But working with the shadow is not a game, and it’s not a method; and furthermore, as Jung says, “so long as it does not obtrude itself the unconscious is best left alone.” (CW 16, par. 381.)  

If one studies Jung, as opposed to reading responses on forums and short YouTube videos, one notices that the Jungian concepts that seemed so simple to understand are, in fact, rather difficult to truly understand. It actually requires proper study of serious sources to grasp what, for example, the persona, shadow, anima, and Self are really about, and what role these dynamics play in one’s own life (if that’s what one wants). Courses and lectures where one is able to ask questions to Jungian analysts help, naturally.

I’ve touched on this in another text, but when I discovered Jung at nineteen, there were very few books by him in my native language, and no works by Jungian analysts were translated. (Literature in English was rare where I grew up.) Jung had never been “big” in my homeland. I was at the mercy of a few publishers. There was no internet to speak of, so the books that weren’t at the library or bookstore simply didn’t exist.  

But I’m grateful for that today, because it “forced” me to study those few books by Jung – and nothing else. If I had been nineteen today and wondered who this Jung was, I might have gone straight to Reddit, YouTube, and the like – and my God, what a tidal wave of sludge would have hit me! It’s not impossible that I would have thrown this Jung in the trash; "he seems like a crackpot."  

While I’ve greatly benefited from the internet in my interest in Jungian psychology, the overwhelming amount of material naturally has a downside too – there’s a never ending flood of poor sources that greet you after a general, superficial search. One thing you’re bound to come across is “shadow work” aimed at “integrating the shadow,” possibly with the help of a method concocted by a layperson, which essentially has nothing to do with Jung.

In the same text I referred to earlier, I jot down advice and tips for those who want to understand what Jungian psychology is about, including how to understand concepts like the shadow. Something I repeat there is to stick to books, lectures and interviews by Jung or Jungian analysts, and online courses with professionals. There are others who know their Jung, of course, but it’s an easy way to sift through the sludge and find the nuggets of gold.

In the meantime – while I encourage you to read Jung, write down your dreams, and engage in self-reflection from time to time – I would like to urge you to forget about this "shadow work" everybody online is talking about, because it's basically a non-Jungian internet fad that you may regret getting involved with.