ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews C. G. Jung's discussions of his clinical work with the shadow, which is to say, the portion of analytical psychology that corresponds to psychoanalysis. In one of his seminars, but in none of his scientific publications, Jung made a "hairsplitting" distinction between the personal unconscious and the shadow, calling the shadow "a normal and natural fact", but the Freudian or personal unconscious was "to a certain extent a cultural fact". Jung's concept of the shadow had its basis in Freud's theory of repression, which Jung characterized as follows: The theory of repression forms the core of Freud's teaching. Jung agreed emphatically with Freud's assessment of conventional morality, as an unwholesome standard that imposed conflict and neurosis on many individuals. Apart from the changes in nomenclature, Jung conceptualized symptom formation in orthodox Freudian terms. The equation of the unconscious with evil, which led to its designation as the shadow, flowed from Jung's empiricism.