Jung's Dreams Interpretation

Jung uses dream interpretation as a means of accessing the collective unconscious. He proposed a special method based on the amplification process that helps him decipher dream symbolism even when it is almost indecipherable.

The easiest way to understand Jung's method is to provide an example of a dream interpreted by himself. The dream is posted in italics and the interpretation follows in bold characters.

On board ship. The dreamer is occupied with a new method of taking his bearings. Sometimes he is too far away and sometimes too near: the right spot is in the middle. There is a chart on which is drawn a circle with its center.

Obviously the task set here is to find the center, the right spot, and this is the center of a circle. While the dreamer was writing down this dream he remembered that he had dreamed shortly before of shooting at a target: sometimes he shot too high, sometimes too low. The right aim lay in the middle. Both dreams struck him as highly significant. The target is a circle with a center. Bearings at sea are taken by the apparent rotation of the stars round the earth. Accordingly the dream describes an activity whose aim is to construct or locate an objective center - a center outside the subject. (Quote Jung's book Psychology and Alchemy, Bollingen Foundation, N.Y., 1968, p. 104-105.)

As we can see, in this dream the problem of reaching the center is posed.

The center represents for Jung the archetype of psychic totality which is the goal and finality of the analytical work.

Dream interpretation supports this approach and is focused on the dreamer's associations and especially on Jung's interpretation which explains to the dreamer the meaning of his dream.

In doing this, he appeals to the so-called amplification consisting in finding various cultural sources such as myths, religious items, folklore tales and so forth that offers another versions of the dream symbols.

Thus he succeeds to discover the meaning of the symbols.

This meaning is seen as a precious information about what happens in the dreamer unconscious.

It is obvious that the Jungian analysis is not limited to a single dream.

Finally, let us stress that dreams of this kind, which produce amazing symbols, can also be encountered outside the analytical process with healthy people.

Some specific aspects of Jung's interpretation of dreams can be summarized as follows:

subject level - dreams are interpreted in relation to the dreamer's person, on a subjective level;

prospective approach - dreams often show how the dreamer's psychological situation will evolve (an important aspect on an analytical seance);

compensation - meaning the dream is a form of compensation for the dreamer's current psychological situation.

More about dream interpretation
according to Jung

new! A Dream about Spirit-Matter Ambivalence (paper)

• The Meaning of Lost or Stolen Cars in Dreams - paper dealing with this topic
   
• Dreams of Pandemic - presents some of the main themes related to pandemic
   
• Jung and Artemidorus (paper)
   
• Dreams and Anxiety (paper) - example of analysis conducted according to Jung's method of dream interpretation.
   
• Dream interpretation and the I Ching (paper) - deals with the I Ching divination applied to dream interpretation.
   
• About Dreams of Death (paper)
   
• Differences between Jung and Freud Dream Methods
  Shows the differences between the two methods.
   
• Several dream symbols are analyzed here.