Jungian Psychology and Dreams
This month I find myself thinking about the meaning and purpose of dreams a lot. Apparently, I find myself in good company as many of July’s blogs from the field of Jungian Psychology took the dream as their focus.
Jung had enormous respect for dreams. He was wary of using a dream to verify or justify a psychological theory, as he felt Freud had done with his own approach. Jung did not believe that dreams were elaborate disguises, hiding their real subject behind the manifest images they presented. He wanted to approach the dream on it’s own terms, without imposing the filter of theory:
“I leave theory aside as much as possible when analyzing dreams – not entirely, of course, for we always need some theory to make things intelligible. It is on the basis of theory, for instance, that I expect dreams to have a meaning. I cannot prove in every case that this is so, for there are dreams which the doctor and the patient simply do not understand. But I have to make such an hypothesis in order to find courage to deal with dreams at all.”
This attitude toward dreams necessarily affects the way one interprets their meaning. For Jung, the dream was an experience, as complex as a living being. There is no one formula for deciphering a particular image in a dream. Working with a dream is more like an ongoing conversation with a friend:
One would do well to treat every dream as though it were a totally unknown object. Look at it from all sides, take it in your hand, carry it about with you, let your imagination play round it, and talk about it with other people… Treated in this way, the dream suggests all manner of ideas and associations which lead us closer to its meaning.
Dreams and Real Life
One of the insights of Jungian Psychology regarding dreams is that dreaming takes place 24 hours a day. It is usually only at night, when the conscious mind goes to sleep that we become aware of the background activity of the mind through dreams. Dr. Andy Drymalski, in his post Finding God in Dis-Ease explores the idea the relationship between dreams and waking life:
“What we call ‘reality’ is a kind of shared dream, but an unspoken and unacknowledged one. It is the shared dream that we do not call a dream and, typically, have difficulty seeing as a dream. It is like wearing glasses, and then forgetting that you’re wearing glasses.”
He goes to explore how this dream-like experience of reality often works through disruptive events, breaking down our fixed identities and experiences and allowing the creative force to emerge:
Although we might wish it otherwise, growth of the personality and deepened relationship with the soul often comes only through the disruptive events and symptoms that shatter one lens of perception so that a new dream can be uncovered and lived.
Jean Raffa in her blog, Matrignosis, also asks the question of the relationship between dreams and real life. In a two-part post, she presents an important dream from her own life and then, in the second part, describes her experience of living and working with this pivotal dream.
Raffa offers this lovely answer to her own question about the value of dreams:
They show us who we are: our greatest fears and deepest desires, our wounds and wishes, weaknesses and strengths.They tell us where we are and how to get where we want to go. They help us forgive our flaws and learn compassion for ourselves and others. They encourage our individuality and reward our healthy choices. They satisfy our soul’s yearning to be known and loved.
Finding Direction Through Dreams
Photo courtesy of AlicePopkorn(CC Attribution)
Echoing Raffa’s thought that dreams “tell us where we are and how to get where we want to go,” Donna May at the Depth Psychology List writes a post called Psyche: Your Inner GPS Navigation System.
May compares our technology driven compulsion for speed and efficiency with the slow winding path through the wilderness that one encounters during “Soul Travels.”
The tools that May suggests can help you find your way on the inner journey include writing, meditation & prayer, art and, of course, dreams. These, she says, are the Psyche’s GPS system.
These tools are not distinguished by their efficiency, but by their depth:
When Psyche calls, it’s not usually a fast track from here to there. The inner travels are in the rhythms of nature. The path to the authentic self is magnificent and wild, inner terrain dynamic and alive.
Odds and Ends
For more writing on dreams and Jungian Psychology, be sure to check out Depth Psychology List, a website that includes a blog of curated articles from the Jungian community. The link for the website can be found in the tweet embedded below:
And while you’re exploring the world of Jungian Psychology and of dreams, I hope you’ll also take a moment to check out some of my own posts from this past month:
Depression and the Call to Adventure
Hearing the Call, Finding Your Voice
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Many thanks for the kind mention, Jason. You are performing a wonderful service with your monthly surveys of Jungian articles on the internet. I sincerely appreciated being included. Best, Jeanie