Jung's term for the suppressed part of the psyche, shaped by fear, shame and social rejection. Nev says it 'desperately wants to be integrated' and keeps showing up as mirrors in the experiences we attract.
Where it appears 1
Connections
References
Mentioned alongside
- Women who call in avoidant partners
Nev describes a pattern she often sees in clients. A woman says she is fully open to love but keeps attracting emotionally avoidant partners. Underneath, unresolved trauma has closed her…
Related
Explored through
- Untouchable rules give the shadow shelter
Moral structures that can't be questioned, such as rigidly held religious law, are exactly where the shadow hides, because it knows you won't go in. Religion, like the shadow, has to be…
If you're creating structures that cannot be touched, that's where the shadow is going to hide. And it knows you're not going to be able to go in.
- Shame often reflects caregivers' dysregulation
Much of what we were punished or praised for as children reflected our caregivers' stress and dysregulated nervous systems, not real morality. The unconscious still treats those rules as…
There's so much in us that's been shamed, that's been rewarded and punished, not because of any real metric of morality and what's good and bad, but rather just because of someone's distortion or the way that somebody's life ended up. There's no real sense behind it.