Definition
Jung used the word “shadow” to describe that part of the psyche which is inseparately connected to an individual but is disconnected from conscious awareness and which is composed of all that a person disavows, all that they find repugnant and disagreeable, and all that they wished others (including themselves) could not see because it runs counter to their ego ideal.
Introduction
While the shadow in Jung’s conception is underpinned by an archetype, its content is primarily derived from a person’s individuality in terms of their inherited inferior function of consciousness as well as their personal life experience to do with those aspects of their constitution which they repress. Nonetheless, the shadow not only contains much energy that can be useful to the psyche, but it can also be the conduit to the deeper layers of the collective unconscious on which a person’s individuation will depend.
Shadow Development
From a developmental...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Johnson, R. (1993). Owning your own shadow: Understanding the dark side of the psyche. New York: HarperCollins.
Jung, C. G. (1931/2015). Letter to Count Hermann Keyserling, 13.8.31. In G. Adler & A. Jaffé (Eds.), Letters of C. G. Jung: vol 1, 1906–1950 (p. 84). London: Routledge.
Jung, C. G. (1940/1991). Psychology and religion. In Psychology and religion: West and East, CW (Vol. 11, pp. 3–105). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1943/1990). On the psychology of the unconscious. In Two essays on analytical psychology, CW (Vol. 7, pp. 3–119). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1951/1989). The syzygy: Anima and animus. In Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self, CW (Vol. 9ii, pp. 11–22). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1968/1989). The shadow. In Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self, CW (Vol. 9ii, pp. 8–10). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1954/1990). Archetypes of the collective unconscious. In The archetypes and the collective unconscious, CW (Vol. 9i, pp. 3–41). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. G. (1954/1991). Transformation symbolism in the Mass. In Psychology and religion: West and East, CW (Vol. 11). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. New York: Random House.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Merchant, J. (2016). Shadow. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1426-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1426-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences