The Shadow-Work Con

If I had to offer an educated guess I would say that the most commonly practiced form of therapy involves 12 Step programs. I trust you will agree.

And yet, it appears that the second most popular form of therapy involves something called Shadow Work, promoted by someone named Keila Shaheen. 

Shaheen is 24 years old. She has no credentials or experience with anything resembling therapy. And yet, she has written something called the Shadow Work Journal. It pretends to be a guide to improved mental health. It is standing atop the Amazon best seller list and apparently is backed up by TikTok videos that have been watched by tens, if not hundreds of millions of tormented souls.

Of course, Shaheen has no qualifications to offer any ideas about therapy. Then again, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith did not either.

I did not know that Shaheen existed until I read an Atlantic article, by Caroline Nimbs Nyce.  I glanced at a few pages from the Shaheen work on Amazon and came away puzzled. 

Well, not that puzzled. Apparently, Shaheen is trafficking in ideas that had first been offered by eminent Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung.

Apparently, she thinks that Jung’s theories, involving all manner of pagan myths and legends, can coalesce with cognitive behavioral therapy. In so saying she simply shows that she is young and naive. We tend to forgive those who are too young to know any better.

As it happens, Jung has been enjoying a resurgence of late. Unfortunately. As it happens, past therapists had largely turned away from what Jung is selling, which is pagan idolatry. Do not imagine for an instant that Jung is promoting anything resembling the values that found Judeo-Christian civilization. 

Didn’t Jung claim that Adolph Hitler represented the return of a repressed Norse divinity, Wotan?

He is the god of storm and frenzy, the unleasher of passions and the lust of battle; moreover he is a superlative magician and artist in illusion who is versed in all secrets of an occult nature. 

In case you missed the point, Jung said this:

With Hitler you do not feel that you are with a man. You are with a medicine man, a form of spiritual vessel, a demi-deity, or even better, a myth. With Hitler you are scared. You know you would never be able to talk to that man; because there is nobody there. He is not a man, but a collective.

So, the next time you choose to drone on about the collective unconscious, a signature Jungian concept, keep in mind that Jung himself thought that Hitler embodied it.

You should also keep in mind that when Jung and a variety of other thinkers tell you that you should become who you really are, to get in touch with your true self, he is thinking of your becoming a mythic being, a fictional character, and not a very nice one, either.

In truth, if you are going to return to Jung, you ought to be able to offer a very good explanation for his Nazi sympathies and his admiration for Adolph Hitler. True enough, Jung overcame his infatuation with the Third Reich, something that put him at odds with that other great Western culture hero, Martin Heidegger. But still, if you do not understand the affinity between Jungian thinking and the author of Mein Kampf, you ought to shut the fuck up about Carl Jung. 

As for the theory behind the curtain, the Nyce offers this:

The Shadow Work Journal, and its success has been fueled by a steady drumbeat of videos posted on TikTok. Inspired by the writings of the psychoanalyst Carl Jung, it offers readers prompts and activities for interrogating the unconscious, repressed part of themselves. By getting to know our “shadow,” the Jungian theory goes, we can better understand ourselves and our behavior.

It feels harmless. And it remains harmless until you figure out that the theory pretends that the culture has taught you to repress your shadow, your dark side, if I may, in favor of social conformity and rule-following. 

This is coded language for an attack on Judeo-Christianity, especially the law of Moses, which is largely conformist and requires one to follow a myriad of rules.

It feels innocent. It tells you that it will help you to get in touch with your repressed dark side. But, of course, Jung believed that society’s collective dark side was embodied in Adolph Hitler. As did, for example, one Martin Heidegger.

Then again, what is so special about a shadow? Why would you imagine that your shadow represents your repressed truth?

Surely, you do not imagine that getting in touch with your dark side, by understanding your behavior, will bring you closer to the light. Having a shadow means that you are blocking the light.

Besides, learning to understand our behavior is not the same as learning to behave better. In the end, it makes us feel better about behaving worse. Perhaps it's worth the price of a book, but it is not worth very much more.