Carl Jung and The Shadow
In 1886 the writer Robert Louis Stevenson had a striking dream: a male
character, pursued for a crime, swallowed a powder whereupon his personality was instantaneously transformed.!
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Stevenson found his dream so striking that it inspired him to write the now famous tale The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a story significant for its highly astute psychological insight that “man is not truly one, but truly two”. !
In Stevenson’s classic tale, Dr. Jekyll is a well-respected doctor, who cares
deeply about the admiration of others and strives to be a good human being.
In his laboratory he concocts a potion that, when ingested, transforms him into Mr. Hyde – a primitive, unruly, and destructive man.!
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Reflecting on the nature of his transformation into Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll discovers a truth about the nature of the human being:!
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“I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)!
Numerous thinkers throughout the ages have commented on the “duality of man” – on the idea that behind or underneath the mask we display to others exist antisocial and destructive traits, desires, and impulses.!
In the Republic, Plato wrote: “There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and
lawless.” (Republic, Plato)!
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche observed:!
“Fear of wild animals – that has been bred into the human being for the longest time, including the animal that he harbors within and fears: Zarathustra calls it the ‘beast within’” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche)!
The 18th century German polymath Goethe, a well-respected man who was revered in the highest social circles of his day, claimed he had never heard of a crime he did not feel himself capable of committing.!
But it was the 20th century psychologist Carl Jung who examined in most detail the “duality of man”.
Jung proposed that at a young age, as we begin to develop a conscious ego and sense of self, two interdependent psychological systems begin to form: the persona, and the shadow.
In Stevenson’s tale, Dr Jekyll represents the persona, while Mr. Hyde the shadow; the “beast within”.!
The formation of the shadow begins early in life.
At a young age we learn that some of our traits and qualities elicit negative feedback from family and peers, and that others are deemed undesirable or disagreeable by society at large. !
This negative feedback from others, and realization that parts of our personality are destructive or unacceptable, stimulates anxiety, guilt, shame, and feelings of inadequacy, forcing us to adapt to the environment and eliminate these painful emotions in the only way we know how – by repressing into the unconscious the individual qualities we have been led to brand as unworthy. !
Common qualities we repress include unbridled impulses such as lust, anger, sexuality, greed, and resentment – which together form what Nietzsche called ‘the beast within’ – as well as weaknesses and impotences; we tend to hide our cowardice from others, as well as from ourselves.
Strengths and sources of renewal, as we’ll examine, also populate the shadow, to the detriment of our well being.!
This repression of unwanted individual qualities, or “denial of the negative”, does not cause these qualities to disappear; they instead coalesce in the unconscious to form the shadow – the rejected and therefore dark side of our conscious ego.!
As Erich Neumann explained:
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All those qualities, capacities and tendencies which do not harmonize with the collective values…come together to form the shadow, that dark region of the personality which is unknown and unrecognized by the ego. (Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, Erich Neumann)!
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
