Browse the ‘mental health’ hashtag on TikTok and you’ll find an abundance of videos about ‘shadow work.’ Collectively they’ve attracted over a billion views and helped sell over a million copies of The Shadow Work Journal by Keila Shaheen, a former TikTok employee.
It sounds mysterious, but the shadow work craze is actually a modern take on an idea first put forward by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung about halfway through the 20th century.
Jung was a friend and collaborator of Sigmund Freud and, like Freud, he believed in the profound importance of the unconscious to human psychology.
One of Jung’s ideas about the unconscious was that we all have a ‘shadow’ self – the part of ourselves made up of traits that we fear and dislike. He used the term ‘shadow’ to reflect the fact that this side of ourselves is always there, we can’t escape it, and to capture the way we see it as dark and unwanted.
Jung believed your shadow self can manifest when you make an unguarded remark or act impulsively, and he believed it showed up in dreams too.
Essentially, the goal of shadow work is to get to know your shadow self better, learn from it and integrate it into who you are. The rationale for doing this is that your shadow is a genuine part of you, so by acknowledging it and processing that side of yourself you’ll feel more authentic and whole.
Moreover, Jung argued that the shadow can have valuable aspects to it, such as raw power and insight, that could be worth expressing, for instance, as a way to boost your creativity, your personal understanding and your resilience.
Shadow work typically takes the form of reflective exercises designed to help you get in touch with your shadow. In The Shadow Work Journal, for instance, Shaheen recommends spending some time in a quiet, dimly lit space, tuning into your shadow and reflecting on what words come to mind when you listen to your inner voice.
There are also many visualisation exercises in shadow work. One involves picturing two doors, one leading to your ideal self and the other leading to your shadow self, then imagining yourself walking through each one and how it would feel.
Other therapists suggest creating spontaneous art to tap into your shadow or keeping a dream diary.
Some Jungian psychoanalysts have welcomed the fresh attention to their field and the idea of people being reflective about themselves. Others fear that the way the shadow concept is discussed on social media is often superficial and fails to capture the depth of genuine Jungian psychology.
Another concern is that for people with traumatic pasts, the reflective exercises could provoke difficult emotions that would be better confronted in a safe therapeutic space.
For scientifically minded psychologists, a related problem with Jung’s theories (as with Freud’s) is that they lack empirical support and could even risk psychological harm. For example, it might arguably do more harm than good to tell someone that their distressing intrusive thoughts are somehow part of them.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Lina McBride, Norwich) 'What is shadow work? And Could embracing my shadow self boost my mental health?'
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