Concept and What is: The shadow in psychology | Psychology

The shadow is one of the most important concepts developed by Carl Gustav Jung in analytical psychology or Jungian psychology, one of the specialties of psychological knowledge that deepens the Psychoanalysis, created by Sigmund Freud.

This aspect of the human ego is instrumental in the conquest of the integral personality enhancement of man, IE your individuation. This does not occur without the inclusion of shadow on the sea of your conscience, not being not complete this work grows, the development of ' I '. According to Jung, the dark nature was bequeathed to humanity by the most primitive stages of existence along the evolutionary journey undertaken by human being.

As the individual hidden in the recesses of your psyche all that is rejected by social standards and for yourself, what is defined as contrary to morality, the rule of brute force, i.e. the monster hidden inside each, the unconscious is populated with these mental creations there suppressed, and without the constant cleaning of the mental content, it is impossible to be free manbecause the fact does not belong to the sphere of consciousness does not mean the shadow let influence human attitudes.

The human being has only access to his dark nature when you have the boldness required to dive into yourself and undertake the essential journey of self-knowledge, a process that can be facilitated by the therapy, but that nevertheless it behooves each perform.

Generally, however, people are afraid to look at themselves to see how they really are, and then transmute what belongs to the realm of shadows. Normally the man would rather design the other what he rejects in itself, hence the importance of analyzing with lucidity aspects of own personality which are commonly transferred to other people and situations.

The dark angle of be, the darkness that still reside in the soul, which each tries to hide himself, lacks, according to analytical psychology and the depth psychology, be known, lit, in order to overcome and transcend these contents. This arduous task should be performed at the heart of man, that needs awakening in your intimate their most evil forces – because the shadow also reveals himself, often under terrible appearances-, exiling them from your soul to face them with the light of conscience.

Human beings had always feared his own shadow, because it senses the presence of all that, in fact, wish to forget or pretend it never existed. But without the awareness of the dark nature there's no self-sustained individuation process. It is important to also realize that this transformation movement is constant, because once you admit the existence of the dark nature in its interior, the man will have to fight incessantly against her, because while he has free will, which presupposes the choice, something will always be relegated to the margin, i.e. the scope of the shadow.

In this sense, the individual will have invariably shadow company in its evolutionary journey towards individuation. And may have to defeat without ceasing their fears and everything else in the way of bringing to the sphere of consciousness which is on the outskirts of the psyche, leaving constantly the perception of his dark nature. Dreams can contribute a lot to this often constitutes the first step in the process of admission of the presence of this negative attribute of the ego, which may also prove to be positive to confer intensity to creativity, the inspiration and all the emotions that surround the process of creation.
Translated for educational purposes.
Culture and Science

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