Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and den... — Carl Jung

Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.

Author: Carl Jung

Insight: We all have a version of ourselves we don't want to admit exists. The parts we're ashamed of, the impulses we judge in others but quietly feel ourselves, the ambitions we pretend we don't have. Jung's insight is that pretending these parts don't exist doesn't make them disappear—it makes them stronger. It's like ignoring a leak in your basement; the problem doesn't shrink, it spreads. The tricky part is that this shadow doesn't just sit quietly in the background. It leaks out sideways. You might notice you're intensely annoyed by someone's neediness, only to realize later that you're desperate for attention yourself. Or you despise someone's ambition, which says something about your own hunger for success that scares you. We tend to hate most fiercely what we've refused to see in ourselves. The practical part, then, isn't to become perfect. It's to get curious about what bothers you, what you judge, where you feel defensive. That's usually where your shadow is waving at you. Acknowledging it—actually naming it instead of just pushing it down—doesn't make you worse. It makes you less likely to be controlled by it. The denser the shadow, the more of your energy it's stealing.

Source: Psychology and Religion, p. 131, 1938