Assimilation of the shadow

Assimilation[48] is the process of acknowledging the shadow and possibly incorporating parts of it into the ego. Jungians believe this may lead to a numinous experience, while anchoring to the numinosum effect without reality testing can lead to ego inflation (qv., archetypal possession).[49]

In analytical psychology, the struggle for the superego is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not to become it or be controlled by it. "Non-identification demands considerable moral effort [which] prevents a descent into that darkness"; and though "the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious...understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious."[50][ full citation needed ] This reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. "Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak,"[14]: 239 thereby providing a launchpad for further individuation. "The integration of the shadow, or the realization of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage in the analytic process... without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible."[51] Conversely, "to the degree in which the shadow is recognised and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated,"[41]: 270n and becomes the centre of the individuation quest.

Carolyn Kaufman wrote that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness – or perhaps because of this – the shadow is the seat of creativity;"[52] so that for some, it may be that "the dark side of his being, his sinister shadow...represents the true spirit of life as against the arid scholar."[53] Nevertheless, Jungians warn that "acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life;"[54] and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, "the later stages of shadow integration" will continue to take place – the grim "process of washing one's dirty linen in private,"[55] of accepting one's shadow.

Shadow (psychology)