Earlier this year, a spiritual coach and reiki healer who goes by the name Zen Oasis posted a video on TikTok explaining the idea of the “shadow self” to her 167,000 followers.
Sitting lotus-shaped, wearing a yellow top and a burning sage branch in one hand, the Atlanta native described an exercise she did to familiarize herself with her own shadow, a term coined by early 20th-century psychologist Carl Jung for describe the parts. of our psyche that we have buried deep in our subconscious.
“I sat down and wrote down all the things I can't stand about people. The things that really got to me were, yeah, yuck,” she said, one hand raised in disgust. “Then I looked at that really long list and took my top five, and I thought, 'You know what? This is me. This is me all day.'”
“It may seem like one kind of way,” he said. “But this was the best way for me to see the things I can't see about myself.”
The video, which has been viewed more than 36,000 times, is just one of more than 48 million on the social media platform exploring the theme of shadow, and further evidence of a broad resurgence of Jungian fascination.
“People are really unsure about the world and where it's going to go, and they come to Jung because they want to find solutions,” said Christophe Le Mouel, director of the CG Jung Institute in Los Angeles.
At a time when conversations about self-discovery are increasing, analyst theories about the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the shadow are increasingly influencing the work of social media-savvy healers, therapists, and life coaches. He's also the inspiration for new tarot-like card decks, thought-provoking Etsy prints, and the recently published “The Shadow Work Journal” that sold out more than a million copies thanks in part to a wildly successful TikTok marketing campaign.
Sixty-three years after his death, Jung's ideas (especially the concept of “shadow”) are having a moment.
“Reading his work, I thought, this material is 100 years old, but it resonated very deeply,” Zen Oasis said in a phone call. “It helped me synthesize what I already knew intuitively.”
How did Jung define shadow? And why is the idea resurfacing today? To learn more, I called Lisa Marchiano, a Philadelphia Jungian analyst and co-host of the popular podcast “This Jungian Life,” which has more than 50,000 subscribers, and author of the new book “.The vital spark.”
In an interview, Marchiano discusses how Jung defined the shadow, why we all have one, and the reasons behind people's renewed interest in the concept.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is the shadow self?
If you are referring to Jung's shadow concept, I will say that he did not use the term “shadow self.” He spoke of the shadow.
The shadow is the part of ourselves that we have disowned. Jung once said that the shadow is everything we don't want to be. It's something we think we're not. “Oh, we're not like that.” “I'm not like that.” Well, actually we are like that, we just don't have a conscious relationship with those parts of ourselves. But we could, and that's the really constructive part of being curious about shadows.
Is it a fundamental idea in Jungian psychology?
Jung had many ideas that have become part of everyday language. The shadow is one of them but also synchronicity, introversion and extroversion, the collective unconscious. But the shadow is certainly a fundamental idea of Jung. He felt that working with the shadows was really the first part of the work of analysis and the work of what he called individuation because it is the entry point to the depths.
Does everyone have a shadow?
In Jung's theory we all have a shadow and it is made up of two components. There is a personal shadow and then there is the collective shadow. To keep things simple, I will mainly talk about the personal shadow.
Where do our shadows come from?
So, we are born with all kinds of potential and in the course of our growth and development of a healthy and functional ego, we discover that there are parts of ourselves that we have to let go of. This is normal. It is necessary. It is healthy. It happens to all of us. Some of the things that get relegated to the shadows are things that could really cause a problem in a collective society, like aggression or greed. But also much of what is relegated to the shadows could be more constructive.
What are some ways to identify what is in our shadow?
In every family there is usually something you are not supposed to be. In some families you are not supposed to be lazy and if you end up sitting there watching TV, that is the worst and it means you are lazy. In other families they may not be allowed to be impractical or capricious. In my family, being immodest or boastful was not allowed. If you're wondering about your shadow, it may be helpful to ask yourself what was the one thing you weren't allowed to have in your family. Often this will be a clue to what might be in its shadow.
Why is it useful to examine one's own shadow?
When the shadow is totally unconscious we tend to project it. When you feel a lot of indignation toward another person, you should ask yourself: “Where is that in me? What is that internally?
The other reason why it is useful to work in the shadow is that much of what is in the shadow is actually full of vitality and energy that we can use in the service of life and growth. Jung is reported to have once said that 99% of the shadow is pure gold.
To use myself as an example, I said, “I can't seek center stage, I can't seek attention, I have to be very modest.” But when I got over myself a bit and did my shadow work, my ability to put myself out there turned out to be very life-giving and stimulating and helped me in my career.
How does one embark on shadow work?
The first response is to be curious about what is in the shadows. See what really turns you on. When do you have a huge reaction of indignation towards someone or something? When do you notice that sense of self-righteousness and enormous inflation that comes with being fair and on the right side of history? It would be nice to say: “Hmm. Wait a second. Who am I hating right now? And where could that be in me?
And then continue to be open to that. Where we could be a little greedy, a little selfish? Where might we be behaving shady?
Why do you think this idea resonates so strongly right now?
I think Jung's ideas have a perennial quality. They always return and with renewed freshness and interest. I definitely think “The Shadow Work Journal” helped him initially, but why did it catch fire? Why did it explode in the public imagination?
I think people appreciate Jung's ideas and return to them because they feel there is an inherent truth in them.
Jung said that our ability to do this work could make the difference between the human race surviving or not. And given how polarized we are, I don't know if I disagree with that. In a way, it's very gratifying to hear that this type of language is permeating social media.
But I know things can be flattened, oversimplified, and changed on social media, so I keep worrying about it. One of my concerns is the idea that shadow work is something that can be done and done with. That's not how it works. You are always working in the shadows; You can't make it go away. What you can do is work on being more aware of it.
