Knowing Your Own Darkness Is The

From Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), in the chapter on Jung's later reflections. The remark is practical rather than merely philosophical: Jung is making a clinical point about the limits of moral condemnation and the mechanics of projection. Until a person has consciously examined their own shadow — their own capacity for the same destructive tendencies they observe in others — their judgment of others will be distorted by unconscious self-protection. The insight is closely related to his concept of projection: what we find most disturbing or reprehensible in others is often what we are least willing to acknowledge in ourselves.