Carl Jung's Shadow Self

Carl Jung's article Shadow Self  was an interesting piece of writing that discussed the contents of the personal unconcious which is said to be acquired during the individual's lifetime. The contrasting idea was the idea that the contents of the collective unconcious occur since the beginning. These things are said to have an influence on someone's ego. The most acessible archetypes that has an affect on ego are shadow, the anima and animus. The shadow is most accessible and the easiest to experience because it can be inferred from the personal unconcious. Shadow challenges the whole ego personality. The emotional nature and conciousness also comes into play when shadowing takes place. Moral effort, and aspects of the prsonality are also recognized and involved. When examining these characteristics, the emotional nature is revealed. After dicussing the emotional nature, Carl talks about projections which are characterized as a moral achievement because it means one would be concious and aware of what they are doing. He also discussed anima and animus. Overall this was an interesting article about shadow and self. A quote that I found interesting was when Carl said, "The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become concious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become concious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real" (145). I agre with him and how he says that the shadow is a moral problem. I also think that personality and ego are both parts of conciousness that a person has to recognize. Another quote that caught my attention was, "[...] the contents of the prconal unconcious are acquired during the individual's lifetime, the contens of the collective unconcious are ivariable archetypes that were present from the beginning" (145). This is an interesting way to catagorize conciousness. I would have never been able to think of it like this. THis quote is a good introductory line and it sets up the article and its ideas. Some things wee unclear, but I enjod the article as a whole because I gained a new insight on conciousness and the self.