Over time, and with reinforcement from caregivers, peers, and teachers, we learn to present the sides of ourselves that other people seem to like while relegating the other sides to the Shadow.īly (1988) offers the compelling image of each of us dragging a big, heavy bag containing all our shadows behind us we filled that bag in childhood, and in adulthood. Each of us forms our Shadow side in childhood when we recognize that certain traits we have are pleasing to adults and get us what we want, while other personality traits seem to get us into trouble (Bly, 1988). Knowing what the Shadow is, what then is shadow work? Shadow work is the unification of who we consciously are with the parts of ourselves that we repress it is the integration of the bad and the ugly with the good, so that we become complete beings (Bertholo, 2013). For this reason, Shadows are more easily identified by other people, and conflict is likely to result when one person remarks on the Shadow side of another person. It is in the nature of our Shadows that we cannot see them clearly to look at them directly would be too painful.

When we see other people demonstrating our Shadow traits, we may have strong negative reactions, because we (1) do not want to be associated with those traits and (2) may resent that other people get to express those sides of themselves, while we don’t (Jung, 1958). When we recognize our Shadow sides coming up, we try to avoid acknowledging those parts at all costs. The Shadow consists of the aspects of ourselves that contradict our characteristics that we do like and want to be recognized for. (I will capitalize the word to remind us that we are using a specific, psychology-based meaning of the word.) The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who is perhaps Sigmund Freud’s most famous trainee, described the Shadow as the repressed parts of ourselves, the parts we find unpleasant or cannot tolerate acknowledging (Jung, 1958).

To understand what shadow work is, we must first define the Shadow.

Shadow prompts