Feeling Jung

The Shadow and Collective Unconsciousness

Dec 28, 2008 Scott Hermanson

Everything perceived is made up by the mind. The world, all surroundings, are unique to the individual. Nobody shares the same reality.

The philosophy of Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, plays a role in modern psychology. His views on the Shadow and Collective Unconscious were groundbreaking; here, some of these concepts are explored.

While experience seems vividly incorporated with the outside world, everything known takes place within the brain. What is felt when touching the fingers is not 'out there', it is really happening inside of the head.

Everything is Mind

What people “see” is an interpretation of information from their senses. The interconnected complexity of the central nervous system is presumably responsible for the awareness people enjoy.

The world people perceive, the spouses they enjoy, and the bed they sleep in – all are a part of the undefinable gray mist of the universe. None of them exist empirically.

When considering that it's the same for every consciousness everywhere, that awareness is all reality is in the first place (and that every reality is different), it is quickly realized that the universe is a collective concept. This is of course opinion.

Good and Bad Are Self

People like or dislike something or somebody because of the changes that the objects' interpretation produces within the person. Good or bad, objects of a person's reality exist in the capacity which they exist because the mind produced them with aspects found in the observer's personality.[1]

All of the aspects in reality have to exist (to some extent) within the mind because physical experience is merely a mental reconstruction. A person defines the extent to which they can experience the states of Gandhi and Napoleon; in this way, objects and people in life represent more closely facets within a person's mind than they do any empirical physicality.

The Shadow

This unbiased view is often hard for people to adopt because it requires that they take responsibility for their shadow, so-to-speak. Most people are not interested in exploring their own flaws, only in molding reality to reflect that they are right.

When aspects of the personality are denied, they manifest themselves physically and in negative form.[2] When people subdue innate characteristics of themselves, often for the purpose of acting civilized, they cut themselves off from Self.

Repressed aspects compel people to those aspects in others. They compel the person because what an individual is at the deepest level does not ask for or require approval to be expressed.

The mind requires self-comprehension, and in an attempt to understand Self, it will seek to intellectualize those traits through the indirectly analyzing others...but mental incorporation cannot be achieved through intellectualizing. The more profound the repression, the larger the manifestation in life.

Most are unaware that they have not dealt with their own problems, and in an attempt to free themselves of negative qualities resort to prejudice, anger, and scapegoating. This is natural; it is natural, and it always leads to an inaccurate perception of the world (for perception is both the process of receiving information and the act of interpretation on said data).

Embracing Self

All of us possess inferior traits, as they are seen, but not all are negative. Expressed properly, these aspects can unify Self and therefore become immensely powerful; repressed, the lack of focus on selected areas produces imbalance.

In the same way that a dominant arm will be stronger and better coordinated, one may decide that emotions are erratic and expend (waste) both time and energy to subdue them...a task which will never be accomplished. Another may possess a higher comfort level within the confines of their mind, and therefore ignore the rich diversity found in social interactions.

With the united expression of all personal aspects, the mind is able to transcend to the unified state necessary for experiential growth. People can become complete only through the complete incorporation of their characteristics.[3]

1. Jung, Carl. The Development of Personality

2. Kaufman, C. Three-Dimensional Villains: Finding Your Character's Shadow

3. Jung, C.G. (1951). "Phenomenology of the Self" In The Portable Jung

The copyright of the article Feeling Jung in Psychology is owned by Scott Hermanson. Permission to republish Feeling Jung in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.