24/05/2022
Shadows.
Have you ever said, thought or done something that you regret?
And afterwards you 🤷🏻♀️ wondered:
~ What just happened here?
~ What was that about?
~ Why did I say that?
If you’re curious and yes, brave enough to look at those parts of you that challenge your constructed idea of who you are, you might might see your shadow.
The ‘shadow self’ is a concept first coined by 20th century psychologist Carl Jung. He called it a moral problem that challenges aspects of our personality that we choose to reject and repress.
You know 🤔
The parts of ourselves that we don’t like—or that we think society won’t like.
Jung had this theory that we push those parts down into our unconscious. Bury them.
Most of us don’t want to acknowledge that these blind spots exist. 🙈 🙉
We tend to want to distance ourselves psychologically from thoughts & behaviours that are undesirable such as:
~ Jealousy.
~ Feeling superior or better than.
~ Having biases and prejudices.
Jung believed that it takes effort to become conscious of one’s shadow and then be ready to do the work.
I see this happen every day.
I find that patients find their way to my room when their way of being in the world no longer is working for them.
1) Some are invested in blame.
Or they may reject how their actions have played a part in a difficult situation. They might feel justified somehow? Or deny that they’ve played a role in it, because it would be too shameful to admit.
2) Some are invested in self-discovery & working with their shadows.
Therapy helps to:
~ Deepen an understanding of ourselves & explore what we co construct in our relationships.
Imagine what the world would be like if we acted as a collective? 🙏🏼
Food for thought… 💫
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘.. 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆.”
- Carl Jung
Image c/o Marthe Sobczak
