Jung’s father complex, the wounds that travel, and what it means to be the one who stops them
Father’s Day is this weekend.
I am writing this in the days before it arrives. And I want to be honest about what I am already carrying as it approaches.
A particular kind of quiet. The kind that settles in when you have done everything right and the circumstances of your life still place something essential just out of reach.
I’m not going to explain those circumstances here. Some things are still being lived.
What I will say is this: the shadow of the Father is not only what damaged fathers pass forward. It is also what the world sometimes asks of fathers who are trying to do it right.
This week’s piece is about that shadow — Jung’s father complex, the three ways the wounded Father expresses himself, and the work of becoming the one in your lineage who stops the transmission.
It is also about re-parenting — becoming the father to yourself that you needed — and what that practice actually looks like for a man who has been doing this work for years and still woke up on Father’s Day feeling empty.
The healed Father is not the one without a shadow. He is the one who knows where his shadow falls.
The paid piece this week goes into what Father’s Day actually looked like from the inside. That part is behind the paywall — and it is the most honest thing I have written this month.Read the full piece →
Carrying it so they don’t have to,
Shiva J