Carl Jung and the Psychology of Dreams

“We also live in our dreams, we do not live  only by day. Sometimes we accomplish our   greatest deeds in dreams.” Carl Jung, The Red Book   Are dreams the product of random brain activity,  or a side effect of the mind consolidating its   memories? Are they, as Sigmund Freud suggested,  the expression of repressed wishes and desires?   Or is there something richer and more  meaningful to dreams that escapes the   notice of many in the modern day? Carl  Jung believed there was, and in this video,   we are going to explore why dreams are  of vital importance to our mental and   physical health and how the art of dream interpretation can revitalize our life.    “It is only in modern times that the dream, this  fleeting and insignificant looking product of   the psyche, has met with such profound contempt.  Formerly it was esteemed as a harbinger of fate,   a portent and comforter, a messenger of the gods.  Now we see it as the emissary of the unconscious,   whose task it is to reveal the secrets  that are hidden from the conscious mind,   and this it does with astounding completeness.” Carl Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology   The interpretation of dreams was an integral part  of Jung’s therapeutic approach. According to his   own estimate, he analyzed no less than  80,000 dreams. In his Seminar on Dreams,   Jung stated that “dreams are messages sent  up from the unconscious”. And so to grasp   the significance of dreams, we must understand  how Jung conceived of the unconscious psyche.   In a lecture given in 1934, Jung wrote that “It is  as if our consciousness were...a ship on the great   sea of the unconscious.” (Carl Jung, ETH Zurich)  The fate of a ship is partially determined by the   activity of the sea and likewise the direction of  our life is highly influenced by the unconscious.   Furthermore, just as the sea contains resources,  treasures, and dangers that are not easily seen   from the surface, so too potentials for good  and evil are hidden in our unconscious depths.   Psychological development, according to Jung, is  facilitated by bringing unconscious contents into   the light of consciousness, for this enriches our  conscious personality, increases our knowledge,   and promotes psychological wholeness. “One does  not become enlightened by imagining figures of   light, but by making the darkness conscious.”  (Carl Jung, Alchemical Studies) More than any   other phenomenon dreams can facilitate  this process as they act as a window into   the unconscious mind, or as Jung explains:  “...the dream is a spontaneous self-portrayal,   in symbolic form, of the actual situation  in the unconscious...The dream is   specifically the utterance of the unconscious.” Carl Jung, Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche   Paying attention to our dreams, and therein  making more of the unconscious conscious,   bestows many benefits. One of which is that  dreams contain insights which in waking   life we are unable, or unwilling, to see.  “When we sleep the soul is lit up completely by   many eyes; with them we can see everything  that we could not see in the daytime.”   Aeschylus Intuitions or gut feelings that are not   consciously processed, subtle hunches about the  true character of other people, as well as blind   spots and self-deceptions that are inhibiting  our development – all are examples of insights   which our unconscious can reveal in dreams.  This ability of a dream to disclose knowledge   otherwise unavailable to waking consciousness  is why throughout history, in the words of Jung,   “the dream has been regarded as a truth-telling  oracle.” Or as Jung explains in more detail:    “The unconscious is the dark being within that  hears what our conscious ears do not hear, and   sees what our conscious eyes do not perceive...We  only become aware of this unheard hearing,   this unseen seeing, when the unconscious  sends us these forgotten images in dreams.”     Carl Jung, ETH Zurich 1933-41 As windows into the unconscious,   dreams also provide us with information  about the health, or sickness, of our body.   For the unconscious is intimately connected to the  biology of the body and involved in regulating the   functioning of organs. It is thus capable of  detecting subtle abnormalities in the body,   and it is not unusual for the unconscious  to disclose these abnormalities in dreams,   long before any overt symptoms show. Or as the  Jungian psychoanalyst James Hall explains:    “It is by no means an easy matter to make  organic diagnoses from dream material,   although there are many striking examples  of such predictions: the dream of an inner   "explosion" preceding the leaking of an  aortic aneurysm, the appearance of dream   figures with gall bladder disease prior to that  illness being suspected in the dreamer, etc.”    James Hall, Jungian Dream Interpretation Dreams can also warn us of the type of   future that may manifest if we  continue in our errant ways.    “Dreams prepare, announce, or warn about  certain situations, often long before they   actually happen.” wrote Jung, “This is not  necessarily a miracle or a precognition.   Most crises or dangerous situations have a long  incubation, only the conscious mind is not aware   of it. Dreams can betray the secret.” Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life   Jung provides an example of a dream of this  type. Jung’s colleague, an amateur mountaineer,   told Jung of the following dream: He was  climbing a mountain, and the higher he climbed,   the better he felt. When he reached the summit  of the mountain he wanted to continue to climb   and so he stepped off the summit into  thin air, and suddenly he awoke.    Jung intuitively felt this dream to be a warning  from the unconscious. He implored his colleague   to take extra precautions on any future climbs  or avoid them altogether. But the man did not   heed the advice. Three months later the man  went climbing, and in the words of Jung:    “A guide standing below saw him literally step out  into the air while descending a rock face. He fell   on the head of his friend, who was waiting lower  down, and both were dashed to pieces far below.”    Carl Jung, Practice of Psychotherapy Dreams also play an important role in   the creative process. We know from  the history of philosophy, science,   art, and literature, that many great creations  and discoveries have been inspired by dreams.   A dream informed the Russian chemist Dmitry  Mendeleyev of the correct order of the elements   based on atomic weight. August Kekule was shown  the structure of the benzene ring in a dream.   The basic theme of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him in a dream.   While Carl Jung stated that all his  greatest ideas were conceived in dreams:    “In the end, the only events in my life worth  telling are…inner experiences, amongst which I   include my dreams and visions. These form  the prima materia of my scientific work.   They were the fiery magma out of which the  stone that had to be worked was crystallized.”    Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections Dreams also have the capacity to break us   free from a worldview that is too constricting and  from a day-to-day existence that is too mundane.   The dreams that do this are  sometimes called “big dreams”.   Big dreams are the highly significant dreams  that are often remembered for a lifetime,   and some even prove to be among the  most valuable experiences of life.   These are the dreams that possess a religious  or spiritual significance, provide insights   regarding the eternal questions of life, and even  transform how we view ourselves and the world.   Regarding the nature of big dreams, the Swiss  psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz writes:    “Occasionally, one has a dream that is so remote  from one’s life, so numinous (Jung’s favorite   word for intensely moving experience), and so  strange and uncanny that it does not seem to   belong to the dreamer. It is like a visitation  from another world, which in truth it is,   the other world being the subterranean one of  the unconscious. In ancient times, and even   today among some people, such dreams are regarded  as messages from the gods or ancestral figures.   These dreams are called “big” dreams by Jung.”  Marie-Louise von Franz, Dreams   Jung recounted a particularly striking big dream  he experienced in 1944, just after suffering a   heart attack that nearly killed him. Jung dreamt  that he was walking in the wilderness and stumbled   upon an old chapel. When he entered the chapel,  he saw a yogi seated in the lotus position,   in deep meditation. Jung continues:  “When I looked at him more closely,   I realized that he had my face. I stared in  profound fright, and awoke with the thought:   ‘Aha, so he is the one who is meditating  me. He has a dream and I am it.’ I knew that   when he awakened, I would no longer be.”  Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections   Big dreams are rare. Most people experience no  more than a handful of them. The dreams that   most frequently populate our sleeping hours  are what Jung called compensatory dreams.   The function of such dreams is  to compensate, or correct for,   the one-sidedness, errors, deviations, or  other deficiencies of our conscious attitude.   The more our conscious mind is ill-adapted  to reality, and the more we are evading the   tasks of life, the more we will be visited  by dreams of a compensatory nature.      “When we pay attention to our dreams a  self-regulating tendency in the soul comes   into play which counterbalances the one-sidedness  of consciousness or completes it so that a kind of   wholeness and a life’s optimum is achieved.”  Marie-Louise von Franz, Dreams   A few examples will help clarify  the nature of compensatory dreams.   A man who is not fulfilling his duties as a father  will have dreams that his children hate him in   order to bring him to the awareness that he is  avoiding one of the most important tasks of life.   A woman who is too identified with her persona, or  social personality, will have dreams of committing   crimes or engaging in immoral behavior so  that she sees the shadow, or unconscious   dark side of her personality, that she needs to  integrate to develop a more complete character.   Or a man who approaches middle age,  yet remains dependent on his parents,   will have dreams that portray him as a  helpless child, or as being smothered to death,   so that he becomes aware of the perilous situation  which his lack of independence is creating.      “…the compensatory function of dreams  offers welcome assistance. [Compensatory   dreams]…illuminate the patient’s situation in a  way that can be exceedingly beneficial to health.   They bring him memories, insights, experiences,  awaken dormant qualities in the personality,   and reveal the unconscious element in his  relationships. So it seldom happens that   anyone who has taken the trouble to work  over his dreams…remains without enrichment   and a broadening of his mental horizon.”  Carl Jung, Development of Personality   But if dreams are significant messages sent from  the unconscious, why are they so difficult to   decipher? Why doesn’t the unconscious present  these messages to us in a form that is easier   for our conscious mind to understand? While the  conscious mind is capable of rationality and   logic, the unconscious is by nature irrational –  it does not operate by the laws of logic and it   communicates primarily in symbols, not words.  “As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche   creates its symbols. Every dream  is evidence of this process.”    Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life The fact that the conscious and   unconscious mind communicate in different  languages explains why dreams are enigmatic.   Yet just because we do not fully understand the  meaning of the symbols presented to us in dreams,   does not mean they do not influence us. For just  as fairy tales, myths, religious teachings and   rituals transcend rational understanding yet have  influenced human beings for thousands of years,   dreams can influence the course of our life  even if we do not fully understand them.    “Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine  you without you understanding their language.”   Carl Jung, The Red Book Or as Jung explained elsewhere:    “It is often objected that the [dream] must be  ineffective unless the dream is understood. This   is not so certain, however, for many things  can be effective without being understood.   But there is no doubt that we can enhance its  effect considerably by understanding the dream,   and this is often necessary because the voice   of the unconscious so easily goes unheard.”  Carl Jung, Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche   To understand dreams and thereby enhance their  effects, we should make a habit of recording our   dreams first thing in the morning - for memories  of dreams quickly fade as we go about our day.   When we come across a dream which we feel is  particularly significant, we can engage in   what Jung called dream amplification. Amplifying a  dream involves reflecting on the dream and weaving   ideas, concepts, and associations around it. This  might include recalling memories that we think   are related to the dream, allowing our intuition  to freely speculate on its meaning, or thinking   about whether the dream is related to a task we  are not fulfilling or if it is compensating for   a conscious attitude that is ill adapted to the  demands of life. In interpreting a big dream,   amplification is aided by knowledge of mythology  and religion, for big dreams are often composed   of the recurring symbols and motifs that are found  cross-culturally in religions and myths. We will   know that we have stumbled upon a correct dream  interpretation when, in the words of Jung,    “…the interpretation "clicks"; when there is  the feeling that it absolutely hits the fact,   one knows one is on the right track.” Carl Jung, Seminar on Dreams   Or as von Franz elaborates regarding  Jung’s method of dream amplification:    “Jung did not interpret his dreams by immediately  forming a clear idea of what they meant; instead,   he carried them around within himself, lived with  them inwardly, as it were, and asked questions of   them. If he came across something in a book or  in an outer experience which reminded him of a   dream image, he would add it to that image, so  to speak, so that a fabric of ideas developed,   with a constantly increasing richness.”  Marie-Louise von Franz, Dreams   If we pay more attention to our dreams and  devote more time to understanding them,   we will possess an effective antidote against  many of the collective sicknesses of our age.   For in Jung’s analysis, much of what plagues  modern society, be it endemic levels of neurotic   illnesses, mass-delusions, a widespread level  of cowardice amongst the general population,   an extreme susceptibility to propaganda, or a  sheeplike obedience to corrupt authority figures,   is the result of a dangerous disconnect  between the conscious mind and the unconscious.   Modern man has lost touch with his instincts,  with the basic facts of human nature, and with   a commonsense wisdom that is millions of years  old. As it is dreams that help forge a connection   to this ancient ground of our being, the more we  pay attention to our dreams, the more we will find   the inner strength and intuitive wisdom needed to  thrive in a sick society. Or as Jung explains:    “Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of  the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the   will.”, explains Jung. “They are pure nature; they  show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are   therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us  back an attitude that accords with our basic human   nature when our consciousness has strayed too far  from its foundations and runs into an impasse.”    Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition