Carl Jung

Robert A. Johnson, author of "Owning Your Own Shadow," is a Jungian scholar and based this work on the "shadow" concept that was first conceived by Carl Jung, renowned Swedish psychiatrist. Quite naturally, there are many references in this work to Jung. One of the most relevant is how he came to discover and understand the "shadow."

Carl Jung developed the concept of the shadow after he unintentionally discovered the presence of "another" in his psyche. Jung had a paradoxical dream that both frightened and encouraged him. It was a nightmarish conflict between the light ahead of him as he walked through a fog and a mysterious looming dark figure following him. After he awoke, he knew that the light he was heading for was his consciousness, or ego, and that the dark figure was his other self, his shadow.

Jung had matured under rigid circumstances. He...