Understanding and Embracing the Dark Side of Our Personality: The Shadow Self

How Do We Go About It?

Illustration by the Author.

“Your Shadow isn’t a ‘thing’ or even a ‘place’ but a relationship that you have with certain parts of yourself that you’ve hidden. By improving this relationship, you can improve your life.” — Oli Anderson

We all have a dark side. It’s part of what makes us human. Recognizing and owning our shadow self is an essential step on the road to self-awareness and wholeness.

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist who founded analytical psychology. He is best known for his work on the psychological aspects of the unconscious mind, including the concepts of extraversion and introversion, archetypes, and the collective unconscious.

In Jungian psychology, the shadow self is the part of the personality we repress because it is too painful or unacceptable to acknowledge.