Jung’s work - shadow and clarity, Jef Dehing

The author begins with a critical reading of Jung’s texts on the shadow. He approaches the origins of the concept, and studies it both as a lower part of the personality and in comparison with the individual unconscious of Freud. He also studies the shadow in relation to the processes of splitting-off and projection, with the complex and the archetype, with the anima/animus and the collective unconscious. He wonders about the ethical problem posed by the shadow and the shadow’s impact on the community. The shadow is manifest in psychotherapy and is linked to the transcendent function, individuation, and totality. The second part of the article is dedicated to Jung’s shadow and his analytical psychology, with particular emphasis on the importance of the shadow in any theorization, especially in the human sciences. The relationship between the shadow and the discriminating consciousness is the connective tissue of this article.