What The Heck Is Wrong With You?

What the Heck is Wrong with You? 
The Bible on Carl Jung’s Shadow Concept
 
Let’s get weird.
Why weird? Because, as a Christian psychologist once told me, Carl Jung is weird.
One of the weirdest and most intriguing aspects of his system—at least according to my limited understanding—is the concept of the shadow.
The shadow is:

• The parts of yourself that you hate and hide.
• The things that irritate you and trigger you about others.
• The impulses that go against the carefully curated persona you’ve been building your whole life.

Jung believed that ignoring the shadow doesn’t make it go away. In fact, the more you repress it, the more control it has over you. The healthier response is to integrate it—bringing it into the light, acknowledging it, and learning from it.
But here’s where the biblical view differs: The goal isn’t integration but transformation.
The answer to our hidden darkness isn’t to embrace it—it’s to confess it. To bring it into the presence of Jesus and into the presence of trusted, godly people who can help us deal with it.
A Biblical Take on the Shadow
Jung wasn’t wrong in noticing that people have hidden darkness. But he wasn’t the first to notice it. The Bible has been talking about this for thousands of years.
Scripture describes a similar reality:

• The sinful nature. Paul describes this in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” There is a war within us—a part of us that wants to do good, and another part that pulls us toward destruction.

 

• The heart’s deceitfulness. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). We all carry hidden motives, blind spots, and contradictions.

 

• The log in our own eye. Jesus warns us against obsessing over others’ faults while ignoring our own: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). Sometimes the things that annoy us most in others are reflections of what we haven’t faced in ourselves.

But unlike Jung’s view, where the goal is to integrate your shadow, the biblical path is to drag it into the light and surrender it to Christ.
James 5:16 says:
“Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
Confession isn’t about shame. It’s about freedom. Your shadow doesn’t shrink when you hide it—it shrinks when you expose it.
Main Exercise: Stop Filtering Yourself (But Not Like That)
A pastor I know started cussing people out regularly, calling them vile names, because “the Holy Spirit told him not to filter himself.” But I don’t think hurting people or dishonoring God is the point of this.
Instead, here’s a better way to practice holy unfiltering:
1. Confess to a Christian Friend
Stop carrying your shadow alone. If there’s something you’ve been hiding—anger, addiction, bitterness, jealousy—bring it to someone you trust. Not just anyone, but a mature Christian who won’t just nod and say “me too” but will actually call you to repentance.
Tell them something real. Something raw. And let them pray for you.
Watch what happens when the thing you thought would make you unlovable is met with grace instead.
2. Notice What Triggers You
Pay attention to the things that set you off. Do arrogant people enrage you? Maybe you fear your own pride. Do hypocrites annoy you? Maybe you’re afraid of being exposed.
Instead of judging, ask: What is this revealing about my own heart?
Then take that revelation to God.
3. Stop Filtering Yourself (Even If People Won’t Like It)
If your life is built around pleasing people, you will never be free.
Jesus didn’t filter himself to be liked. He was honest. He was disruptive. He told the truth even when it made people furious.
Adlerian psychology (from The Courage to Be Disliked) argues that freedom comes from detaching your worth from other people’s opinions. Most people are trapped in an approval-seeking prison. They live to be liked, to be accepted, to be seen as good.
But Jesus calls us to something higher.
Paul says in Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Here’s the challenge:
Say what you mean. Be who you are. Stop shaping your words, your presence, your very existence around what will make people approve of you.
You will lose some people. You might be misunderstood. But you will gain your soul.
And—here’s the secret—you’ll actually be more respected in the long run. Because people instinctively trust those who aren’t playing a game.
4. Surrender, Don’t Suppress
The goal isn’t to push the darkness down or act like it isn’t there. It’s to bring it into the light of Christ.

• If you’re exhausted from performing, stop.
• If you’re hiding something, confess it.
• If you’re bending yourself to fit into people’s expectations, walk away from that.

Surrender your shadow. Let God have it.
Your Shadow Doesn’t Have the Last Word
Yes, you have hidden motives, unresolved wounds, and impulses you don’t understand. But you are not defined by them.
The real you isn’t the sum of your broken pieces—it’s who you are in Christ.
And when you bring your shadow into His light, it doesn’t just stop haunting you.
It becomes part of your testimony.