Jungian Analysis in Victoria, BC
Dream Interpretation

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MORE ON JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION

"So difficult is it to understand a dream that for a long time I have made it a rule, when someone tells me a dream and asks for my opinion, to say first of all to myself : "I have no idea what the dream means." After that I can begin to examine the dream. "
(C. G. Jung, CW8, para. 533)

These are a few core ideas you can use to begin to interpret your own dreams

  1. ABOUT SLEEP
    1. We all dream as we sleep.
    2. Dreams occur at discrete stages of sleep. These are called REM phases. (dreams may also occur in NREM)
    3. The longest REM phase is 1 1/2 hours for most people, shortly before they awake.
    4. The difficulty is being able to recall dreams.
    5. Some people in Jungian Analysis never report a single dream.
  1. WHY DO WE INTERPRET DREAMS
    1. Dreams provide the most direct access to Unconscious (Ucs) material.
    2. Ucs contents compensate/complement Conscious (Cs) attitudes.
    3. Dreams tell the situation of the psyche ‘as it is”
    4. Dreams are not distorted by ego defences hence provide accuracy. (some “dream work” does occur though, such as condensation, doubling etc)
    5. Csness (the ego) is a very small part of the psyche.
    6. Dreams provide a pole for the dynamic dialectic between the Cs and Ucs, and represent the dialectic between the psyche and the external world.
    7. Dreams provide access to subjective, inner experiences.
    8. Dreams provide pure symbolic/imagic representations of the archetypes.
    9. Certain dream material may present prospective imagery/massages from the Ucs.
    10. Dreams provide symbols in the form of the transcendent function to mediate polar opposites between the CS and the Ucs.
    11. Dreams can provide specific information to the analyst
    12. Dreams are central to the analytic process.
    13. Dreams are diagnostic tools especially with neurosis.
    14. Dreams facilitate healing
    15. Dreams are essential to the individuation process.
  1. WHAT IS A DREAM?
    1. A statement from the unconscious.
    2. A statement about the psychic situation as it is right now.
    3. A commentary about the way you are dealing with your conscious life.
    4. Most dreams comment on the conscious attitudes we hold. Some (prospective, traumatic) comment on a past event or give us information about the future manner we can deal with events.
  1. HOW DID JUNG UNDERSTAND DREAMS?
    1. State of the psyche as it is now.
    2. Compensation and complementation.
    3. Teleological
    4. Prospective
    5. Big vs. Small dreams
    6. Dream series.
    7. Start with the idea that you know nothing about dreams when someone tells you one, and then work your way out from this place (this implies a very simple, unassuming, non-intellectual attitude).
  1. WHAT ARE THE CORE ISSUES IN DREAM INTERPRETATION?
    1. The interpretation must fit the dreamer.
    2. If the interpretation does not accord with the dreamer, then it is most likely incorrect.
    3. Never over-interpret a dream – always leave something of the dream unknown and alive when you are finished with it.
    4. A dream interpretation is useless unless it is brought into our conscious life and used to make alterations in that life.
    5. Leave “symbol dictionaries” alone unless you are really blocked about what a symbol could mean.
    6. Analysts don’t use the phrase “the wisdom of the dream” for nothing!
  1. A USEFUL APPROACH YOU CAN TRY
  • Write the dream down as soon as you awake.
      • Make this a habit.
      • Use a dream journal where you record the text of the dream but also what you did with it (i.e. the interpretation)
      • Don’t go back to the text and clean it up – spelling and strange words are part of the dream text – they have meaning.
      • Write down how you felt in the dream (anxious, elated, relaxed, happy, mean, embarrassed etc)
      • Write down how you felt after you had written down the dream (anxious, elated, relaxed, happy, mean, embarrassed etc)
      • Compare this dream to previous ones, and later, to the dreams that followed.
  • Write a short paragraph on what your Cs life involves, what Cs attitudes you are using, what challenges you are facing
  • Underline the figures and objects in the dream text
    • Write a few brief associations to these figures and objects
  • Identify the objects/figures that have strong symbolic meaning to you
    • Amplify these objects/figures using your own ideas
  • Identify the stages of the dream
    • EXPOSITION : who is there, where did it happen?
    • DEVELOPMENT : How does the dream progress? What happens to the figures/objects in the dream?
    • CRISIS : What happens in the critical moment of the dream?
    • LYSIS : How does the dream end? How is a solution presented?
  • Ask yourself what is the dream speaking about and does this relate to a Cs attitude issue
  • SUBJECTIVE vs. OBJECTIVE INTERPRETATION
    • Is the dream about real people, real events and real experiences? If it is, try an objective interpretation.
    • Is the dream about the real parts of your psyche, the inner figures of your personality? If it is, try a subjective interpretation.
  • COMPENSATION
    • Is the dream compensating a one-sided Cs attitude? If it is, how so? What is the dream commenting on in your daily life?
  • With the interpretation, try to determine what the dream is stating. Is it telling you to change something, is it telling you that the attitude you have to someone is appropriate, is it reminding you it is time to let go of something?

 
  Dream_Interpretation_C.G._Jung  

"But why should one consider dreams, those flimsy, elusive, unreliable, vague, and uncertain phantasms, at all? Are they worthy of out attention? Our rationalism would certainly not to recommend them, and the history of dream interpretation before Freud was a sore point anyway; most discouraging in fact, most " unscientific " to say the least of it.  Yet to dreams are the commonest and universally accessible source for the investigation of man's symbolizing faculty, apart from the contents of psychoses, neuroses, myths, and the products of the various arts.  All these, however, are more complicated and more difficult to understand, because, when it comes to the question of their individual nature, one cannot venture to interpret such a unconscious products without the aid of the originator.  Dreams are indeed the chief source of all our knowledge about symbolism.  "
(CW18, para. 431)

"We are all agreed that it would be quite impossible to understand the living organism apart from its relation to the environment."
(CW8, para. 323)

"The same is true of the psyche.  It's peculiar organisation must be intimately connected with the environmental conditions.  We should expect consciousness to react and adapt itself to the present, because it is that part of the psyche which is concerned chiefly with events of the moment.  But from the collective unconscious, as a timeless and universal psyche, we should expect reactions to universal and constant conditions, with a psychological, physiological, or physical."
(CW8, para. 324)