FACING THE SHADOW Carl Jung and the Shadow Posted by Andrew S. Carl Jung: What did he mean by 'the shadow'? Carl Jung claimed that facing the shadow was one of the greatest moral challenges a person could face. In this essay, I will explain what Jung meant by this statement, and use a hypothetical example to point out why undertaking such a process may be a moral challenge. I will attempt to verify the plausibility of Jung’s argument by two means: first, I will contrast Jung’s argument to two competing theories (including the death instinct; arguably the Freudian equivalent of the Jungian shadow). Secondly, I will evaluate the Jungian shadow from the hypothetical position of someone who dismisses the Jungian framework overall. At this point, I will evaluate how illuminating the Jungian shadow argument may be to a hypothetical skeptic, and finally from my personal point of view. To understand what Carl Jung meant by the shadow, we’re going to have to back-track a few steps, ...