Carl Jung Resources > Dreams
What is Jung's Dreams Interpretation Method? Jung's dream interpretation work aims at acquiring information about the activated archetypes and their significance for the dreamer disturbed psychical life. It is the basic part of Jung's method in his analytical therapy. Jung believes that dream interpretation is the direct path to
accessing the collective unconscious, that is, the archetypes. His method of interpretation is partially influenced by Freud's. In fact, when working with dreams, Jung first goes through the
Freudian approach and only in certain, rare situations, when the dreamer does not have his own associations, does Jung resort to his own method which is a development of the classical, Freudian one.
This aspect is completely ignored by the authors who present the Jungian method. The Jungian method has some important additions which we review in the following: Subject level It is known that Freud interprets dreams on the object level; that is, according to the relationship between the dreamer and the persons or situations in his real of fantasy life. Jung introduces the subject level. What is this level? The fact that the dream reveals, in a symbolic way, some features of dreamer's psychic life or of his internal psychic transformations. This way the dream becomes an indicator of those changes that sometimes point to the development of the individuation process. So, if someone dreams of his mother, the mother in Jung's view is not an evocation of the real mother, but of the dreamer's anima, that is, his emotional, feminine side. Mother can also be a suggestion to what is basically biologic in the human nature or can lead to the inherited background, the homeland in a cultural way. Prospective approach Freud's dream approach is retrospective;
that is, it refers mainly to past events, placed back in the dreamer's childhood (psychic trauma, sexual repressed wishes and so forth). Jung's dream approach is prospective; he treats the dream like an
inner map of dreamer's future psychic evolution towards a more balanced relationship between his ego and the unconscious (be it personal or collective).
Talking about infantile complexes, Jung states, in accordance with his orientation, that complexes are not of importance per se; what really matters is what the individual's ego does with
them. This way, the complexes, even the neurotic ones, become raw material for dreams, the language through which the dream (the unconscious) expresses itself.
The mother complex, for example, may indicate a process of development on the basis of some inherited features or life events that constitute the background of the individuation. The compensation feature
For Jung the concept of compensation includes another powerful idea: the dream is an attempt to counterbalance a hypertrophied ego. That is why the interpretation of dreams
should seek to discover the compensatory aspects that help the ego better adapt to the demands of internal and external life. In a certain clinical situation, as a result of a dream interpretation,
Jung had to explain to his patient that she must resign her too rationalist attitude (as a consequence of her animus inflation) in order to cure her severe neurosis. This way the dream becomes
a message of the unconscious that indicates several neurotic deficiencies in the individual life orientation.
Method of amplification Finally, Jung adds to the free association method, developed by Freud, the
method of amplification. He states that there are elements of the dream to which the dreamer cannot provide personal associations.(1) These elements are symbols.(2) In
this case, the analyst should intervene with his knowledge and complete the dreamer's gaps related to them. The associative material comes from various cultural areas: mythology, religion, alchemy, folklore and so forth.
One must notice that Jung warns us repeatedly that dreams ought to be interpreted at first by Freud's method. Only exceptional cases demand the use of his own method. Example of a Dream Interpreted by Jung Dream: A dangerous walk with Father and Mother, up and down many ladders.
A childish consciousness is always tied to father and mother, and is never by itself. Return to childhood is always the return to father and mother, to the whole burden of the psychic
non-ego as represented by the parents, with its long and momentous history. Regression spells disintegration into our historical and hereditary determinants, and it is only with the greatest effort that we can
free ourselves from their embrace. Our psychic prehistory is in truth the spirit of gravity, which needs steps and ladders because, unlike the disembodied airy intellect, it cannot fly at
will. Disintegration into the jumble of historical determinants is like losing one's way, where even what is right seems an alarming mistake. As hinted above, the steps and ladders theme points to the
process of psychic transformation, with all its ups and downs. We find a classic example of this in Zosimos' ascent and descent of the fifteen steps of light and darkness. It is of course
impossible to free oneself from one's childhood without devoting a great deal of work to it, as Freud's researches have long since shown. Nor can it be achieved through intellectual knowledge only;
what is alone effective is a remembering that is also a re-experiencing. The swift passage of the years and the overwhelming inrush of the newly discovered world leave a
mass of material behind that is never dealt with. We do not shake this off; we merely remove ourselves from it. So that when, in later years, we return to the memories of childhood
we find bits of our personality still alive, which cling round us and suffuse us with the feeling of earlier times. Being still in their childhood state, these fragments are very
powerful in their effect. They can lose their infantile aspect and be corrected only when they are reunited with adult consciousness. This "personal unconscious" must always be
dealt with first, that is, made conscious, otherwise the gateway to the collective unconscious cannot be opened. The journey with father and mother up and down many ladders represents
the making conscious of infantile contents that have not yet been integrated.(From The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 12: Psychology and Alchemy, page 91-92.) Do you want to interpret your dreams? Just take our email course and learn how Our course is designed for beginners. No need to buy a book prior of start your learning. [ -> Explore our dream interpretation course ] -- 2. One must know that, unlike Freud, Jung treats symbols like signs that lead to unknown psychological content. (See also the archetype section of this site.)
Further Resourcess: new! A Dream about Spirit-Matter Ambivalence (paper)
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