C G Jung, reflections, research, therapy, Uncategorized

Jung, the Shadow, and what we’re living through today

aleksandrastaneva

Lately, I’ve been deepening my studies of Jung’s work, especially through reading and exploring The Collected Works, most recently Volume 10 (Civilization in Transition, 1964) which feels uncannily relevant to the times we’re in.

His ideas on the shadow and the collective unconscious have taken on a new urgency for me.

We’re living through a time of profound collective transition: systems are breaking down, polarisation is intensifying, and beneath the surface, there’s a deep psychic unrest.

Jung wrote that what we fail to face in ourselves will inevitably be lived out in the world, and I see this everywhere. The denied, disowned aspects of our collective psyche are erupting through social fragmentation, fear-driven ideologies, and the desperate search for certainty.

In my therapy work, these patterns show up not just individually, but archetypally, people are holding grief, rage, helplessness, and a longing for wholeness that isn’t just personal. The shadow is not only an individual phenomenon; it’s moving through the culture like a force demanding to be reckoned with.

Image by Angel Sky

Jung helps me meet these times not just with understanding, but with intention. His work invites us, both in therapy and in daily life, to turn inward, to face our personal shadow with honesty, and to stay present to the discomfort that growth demands. And on a collective level, it asks us to do the same: to hold space for complexity, to resist projecting our fear onto others, and to engage in conscious, grounded action.

Despite Jung’s work being continually reexamined, especially through feminist and racial lenses that critique its Eurocentric and patriarchal biases (been reading and listening to Susan Rowland lectures on her feminist revision of Jung), his core ideas remain profoundly relevant.

The shadow, the archetypes, and the journey toward individuation still offer a powerful map for those navigating the breakdown of old systems and the longing for a more integrated, human future.

Healing begins when we stop running from the darkness, within and around us, and start listening to what it’s asking us to become.

With peace,

Aleks

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Published by aleksandrastaneva

Aleksandra She, who remembers. I work at the threshold, where psyche speaks in symbols, and the soul remembers. Rooted in Jungian depth psychology and Internal Family Systems, my work invites women and seekers into the quiet, often forgotten places within: the underworlds of grief, the wild terrain of desire, the sacred chambers of the inner child, inner mother, the Shadowlands, and Self. With a background in women’s heath research, in ritual, and in lived experience spaces, I do not offer diagnosis or treatment, I offer devotion to the unfolding Self. On the threshold of becoming- where we always are. Through dreams, parts work, myth, and the body, I walk beside those ready to meet themselves fully, fiercely, and tenderly. This is not fast work. It is sacred work. It is not about fixing, it is about remembering. I do not promise certainty. I promise presence, and a deep trust in the wisdom already within you. My work is rooted in the wild: in the seasons and the body, in the wisdom of the land, and in the deep ecology of the soul. I honour the personal as political, and the psychological as inseparable from the cultural. Feminism, ecopsychology, and embodied awareness are not add-ons here, they are the soil this work grows from. I offer one-on-one soulwork sessions, women’s circles, and immersive psychoeducational experiences that weave together depth psychology, parts work, and embodiment. Some of this work unfolds indoors, some in wild places—always with reverence for the wisdom of nature, the nervous system, and the feminine psyche. Welcome to the HORÓ nest. I think you might just be ready to re-member your Self.

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