#shadow-work

#shadow-work

The unconscious has structure. Jung recognized that unconscious mental life isn't just a chaos of repressed wishes (as Freud sometimes implied) but has its own organization and intelligence. We now understand this through research on implicit memory, procedural learning, and automatic processing. Much of what our brains do happens outside conscious awareness, following learned patterns and rules we never deliberately installed.

The numbers are striking. Videos tagged #shadowwork have accumulated over 2.3 billion views on TikTok. The Shadow Work Journal by Keila Shaheen, a self-published workbook based on Jungian concepts, outsold every other book on Amazon in September 2023-including Oprah. It has now sold over a million copies. Jordan Peterson's lectures on Jungian psychology have drawn millions of viewers to concepts like archetypes, the shadow, and individuation.

As I said in previous articles, executives like to say they're "integrating AI." But most still treat artificial intelligence as a feature, not a foundation. They bolt it onto existing systems without realizing that each automation hides a layer of invisible human work, and a growing set of unseen risks. AI may be transforming productivity, but it's also changing the very nature of labor, accountability, and even trust inside organizations.

"What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering." ~Don Miguel Ruiz For most of my life, I didn't fully understand what projection was. I just knew I kept becoming the problem. I was "too much." Too intense. Too emotional. Thought too deeply. Spoke too plainly.

Have you ever repeated a frustrating mistake, despite promising yourself, "Never again"? Perhaps certain challenges keep resurfacing no matter how many leadership books you read or seminars you attend.