A Post-Mortem Interview with Carl Gustav Jung

What if the thing that irritates you most about your colleague is actually a reflection of something you refuse to see in yourself?

Carl Jung spent his life exploring the hidden architecture of the human psyche. His concept of the shadow, the unspoken, the repressed, disowned parts of our personality remains one of the most useful tools for understanding why we stumble, why we project, and why we feel stuck.

In this imaginary post-mortem interview, Jung sits down to answer the questions we rarely ask: Where does the shadow come from? How does it show up in our daily lives? And what does it really mean to become whole?

Read on for a conversation that might just change how you see yourself.

Who is Carl Gustav Jung?

Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology. Originally a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, he broke away to explore the deeper layers of the psyche.

Jung introduced the concept of the shadow: the hidden, repressed parts of ourselves we refuse to see. These disowned qualities do not disappear, they resurface through projection, meaning we unconsciously see our own darkness in others.

For Jung, true growth meant recognizing the shadow, withdrawing our projections, and integrating these lost parts into a greater whole.

Erik: Professor Jung, thank you for taking the time. I realize you are in a different state of being now.

Jung: (laughs softly) Time means little here. Ask your question.

Erik: Your concept of the 'shadow' is famous but can feel vague or frightening. Can you explain it simply?

Jung: Gladly. Imagine a house. You live in the neat living room, that is your persona, the face you show the world. But there is a dark room you never enter. You lock the door and throw things in there... your anger, your selfishness, your fears. Everything you don't want to see. That dark room is the shadow. And what you lock away does not disappear. It whispers. It grows. Eventually, it pounds on the door.

Erik: How does a person notice that pounding?

Jung: In irritations. Mood swings. Bad dreams. But most clearly in what I call projection. You meet someone and think, "That person is so arrogant." In truth, that arrogance is often your own, a quality you have repressed and now see in others. You are not fighting them. You are fighting your own shadow.

A Quote from Jung for Reflection:
"Only when we have the courage to see our own shadow do we truly begin to bring light into the darkness of the world."

Erik: Professor, may I suggest something? I work with corporate organizations. For them, the word "shadow" sounds mystical. And "projection" sounds clinical. Could we instead call the shadow "the unspoken", everything people don't say? And call projection "attribution", when you wrongly assign your own unspoken qualities to someone else?

Jung: (nods thoughtfully) That is excellent. You are not changing my idea. You are giving it a door into the boardroom. Yes. Let us use your words. From now on, the shadow is the unspoken. And projection is attribution.

Erik: Thank you. Then let me ask... how does the unspoken show up in ordinary life?

Jung: In everything you do not say. The criticism you swallow. The fear you hide with a smile. The resentment you pretend is just tiredness. That is the unspoken. And attribution? That is when you point at a colleague and say, "They are the problem," when really you are seeing your own unspoken anger or fear in them.

Erik: So let me try an example. Suppose I am a manager. I work hard. I try to be a good person. What might my unspoken be?

Jung: That I cannot tell you, that is your journey. But I can show you the way. You say you try to be "good." To maintain that, you must suppress everything labeled "bad." Your anger. Your assertiveness. Your selfishness. That is your unspoken. But note... the unspoken is not all bad. It also holds your suppressed strength, your creativity, your wildness. The spontaneity you had as a child before you were told to behave.

My Unspoken is not necessarily 'bad'. It can also be positive, suppressed energy.

Erik: So the unspoken can be positive too?

Jung: Yes. It is simply what you have not lived. An artist takes their pain and anger, their unspoken, and turns it into a painting or a book. Without that darkness, their art would be bland. The goal is not to destroy the unspoken. It is to know it.

Erik: You also spoke of a collective shadow. What would that be in your new words?

Jung: The collective unspoken. An entire company, even an entire nation, can have things no one says aloud. Look at Germany in my time. A civilized nation repressed its primitive, cruel side, and it erupted in catastrophe. War is often two collective unspoken colliding. Each side attributes its own evil to the other.

Erik: That is heavy. How does a person begin to face their own unspoken?

Jung: The first step is simple and painful... stop lying to yourself. The next time you are annoyed with someone, instead of attributing the problem to them, ask... "Where is this in me? What am I not saying?" Keep a dream diary. Dreams often show you your unspoken plainly.

Erik: It sounds exhausting. Isn't it easier to keep the door shut?

Jung: (smiles wearily) Easier? Yes. Just as it is easier to never exercise. But in the long run, you become ill. The unspoken grows stronger. It shows up in outbursts of anger, in broken relationships, in strange physical complaints. The path of facing your unspoken is not easy, but it is the path to freedom. Not perfection, but wholeness.

The Unspoken you ignore grows stronger. 

Erik: Wholeness instead of perfection. One last question... what is the biggest misconception about your work?

Jung: That it is esoteric. But you have just proved otherwise. You took "shadow" and "projection" and gave me "the unspoken" and "attribution." That is not dilution. That is translation. My work is about courage. The courage to say... "This unspoken thing... it is also me." And for your organizations, the same applies. Teach them to ask two questions... What is our unspoken? And to whom are we attributing it?

Erik: You once wrote... "What do I not want to see in myself?"

Jung: (nods) You paid attention, Erik. Keep asking that question. All your life. That is the only way to become truly human.

What do I not want to see in myself?