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. Dream interpretation is the basic method in Jungian therapy. Why? Because dreams, in Jung's understanding, offer us an
overview of the dreamer's psychic totality, in a word, they lead us to the More precisely, they show us which archetype has The task of analysis when approaching the archetype is its
integration and assimilation of its meaning at the level of the individual psyche. The Jungian method of dream interpretation is a development of the Freudian one It should be noted that the Jungian method of dream interpretation initially followed the Freudian one.
Later on, Jung added new aspects, such as amplification, that enable us to reach the depth of the psyche. The additions made by Jung make his method move away from
the Freudian one, therefore we need to examine the differences between them. -> Example of a Dream Interpreted by Jung Dream: A dangerous walk with Father and Mother, up and down many ladders. Interpretation: 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.) --
Dream Interpretation Resources: new!
A Dream about Spirit-Matter Ambivalence (paper)
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