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Mother Earth - A Living Organism

Myths-Dreams-Symbols
The Unconscious World of Dream
intuitive knowledge

Sigmund Freud: Doctor of the Mind           Who Is Carl Jung?

FREUD vs. JUNG

FREUD depicted the unconscious as a receptacle underlying the conscious mind, whose task is to contain rejected and un-encountered events, feelings, thoughts and experiences of the resenting conscious mind.  
JUNG postulated two layers of the unconscious - a personal unconscious, right under the conscious mind, taking in personal psychic contents and down below the collective unconscious, containing the accumulating experience of all humanity.
     
According to FREUD the force of life is driven by sexuality and the underlying unconscious contains nothing but feelings, thoughts experience and frustrations of resulting unfulfilled sexual desires; hence the unconscious is a bag full of pathology and in fact, so is life in general.   There is much more to life than sexuality, which is but a part of a greater wholeness, which underlies the process of Individuation and constant search for meaning, according to JUNG. The unconscious has a compensatory regulating function, aiming at healing, growth and individuation.
     
For FREUD, a disturbance to the psychic balance is a pathology stemming from an unresolved sexual conflict, a complex surrounding the person's sexual energy (libido).   For JUNG it is not necessarily a pathology, but rather a compensatory and regulatory inclination of the unconscious to strive and resolve the unbalanced equilibrium of the psyche as a whole.
Used with permission from Benjamin Nagari
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Freud’s Three Levels of Consciousness
  • conscious: Ideas, thoughts, and feelings of which we are aware.
  • preconscious: material that can be easily recalled.
  • unconscious: All the ideas, thoughts, and feelings of which we are not and normally cannot become aware.
  • The psychology of the “unthunk thought”

  • Jung’s Two Levels of the Unconscious
  • personal unconscious: contains the individual’s repressed thoughts, forgotten experiences, and undeveloped ideas
  • collective unconscious: the part of the unconscious that is inherited and common to all members of a species Jung thought Freud underplayed the role of the unconscious mind.

  • From
    Dreams as Viewed by Freud and Jung
    2.1 FREUD'S PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

    With his psycho-analysis, Sigmund Freud opened the door for dreams to become a subject of scientifical research. He became interested in dreams when dealing with his patients because they were telling dreams spontaneously. He soon systematically included interpretation of dreams in psycho-analysis right beside hypnosis and free association. In the end of 19th century he eventually researched the mechanism of dreaming. The analysis of dreams is indispensable tool in therapy for each psychoanalyst since then, and for Freud, dreams are even the key to theoretical understanding of subconscious. He explained also dreams of people, who did not suffer from mental illness, in psychoanalitic way and so he was changing his psychotherapy in theory in the very beginning.

    2.1.1 A desire to sleep
    When we become tired of receiving of and responding to stimuli from environment we try to fall asleep. The main characteristic of psychical state of a sleeper is therefore a withdrawal from reality and cessation of taking all interests in it. We try to fall asleep by disconnecting from all sources of external stimuli. We lay down in a silent, dark room and cover our body to keep it comfortably warm and so minimize input from environment. Of course, an absolute withdrawal in which we would stop to perceive environment is not possible. In other words, the sleeper does not have a 'switch' to switch off at the time of sleeping and switch on back, when the time for awakening comes. After all, if such absolute withdrawal was possible to achieve, the sleeper would risk not to wake up again, since more and more strong stimuli in the morning are exactly what wakes up the sleeper. These stimuli disturb us also during the sleep, and our mentality is forced to respond to them - with dreams.

    Disturbing stimuli can be either external or internal. External stimuli come from environment and from inside of our physical body. Their task is to warn of imbalance in the body (e.g. full bladder, thirst) or else they contain information about disturbances in environment (e.g. low room temperature, noise). There are lot of evidences how dreams maintain sleep in such cases. For Freud though, the external stimuli are important only to the extent that suggest analogous existance of more important, psychical pressure on sleeper: an internal stimulus.

    This internal stimulation emerges either because of the continuation of our diurnal mental activity or pressure of our unsatisfied instinctive aspirations. The latter are in psychotherapy very important, because they can express those conflicts, which are the cause for mental disease. The possibility that such disturbance occures during the sleep lies in relation between conscious ego and unconscious id1. Suppressed aspirations of id do not conform to ego's desire to sleep and thus gain certain independancy. These unsatisfied aspirations fight their way through conscious ego in a dream, which is unlikely to happen during the day. The dreams are therefore above all psychological and not somatic phenomenon.

    If it was that simple, we would be able to reveal the meaning of dreams with ease. In truth, this process is much more complicated. Conscious ego never gives up completely. Under the influence of superego, it transforms and hides id's aspirations, because the task of dream is to maintain sleep and protect the sleeper from being disturbed. The effort to hide inadmissible instinctive aspirations forms manifest and latent content of dream.

    2.1.2 Manifest and latent content
    The manifest content of dream is the content which the dreamer remembers and relates. Behind this content there is usually hidden the latent content of dream as "the dream we remember [sic] is not exactly the right thing, but rather a deformed substitute for dream." (Freud 1977: 116) I say usually, because we also know dreams in which latent content matches with manifest content. Such kind of dreams are often experienced by little children as a result of not yet developed ego and superego, which would transform unsatisfied instinctive aspirations. However, this type of dreams occur to grown-ups in certain circumstances as well and Freud called them infantile dreams.

    In the process of interpretation of dreams, the therapist translates manifest content in latent content using special technique. It is exactly the opposite process of that when dream arises: we need to discover initial internal stimulus. The therapist directs patient at particular elements of dream, which are unknown to him, to discover residua of the day.2 In connection with residua of the day and other patient's associations regarding manifest content (which are determined), the therapist gradually completes his/her suggestions and discovers the latent content of dream. There are some problems with this though. The manifest content is more or less confined to visual answer on internal stimulus and can thus be quite distant and difficult to connect with latent motive. It is also common that parts of dream are missing and patient cannot or does not want to remember them. This is the work of so called resistance, which serves the same purpose as ego in the rise of dream; it just does not allow morally inadmissible instinctive aspirations to become conscious. The more patient's associations needed to discover latent content of dream, the greater resistance. The blanks in recall of dream are as a rule latent content itself or without exception they prove to be crucial for discovering it. With the analysis of dreams it is usually possible to overcome the resistance, which also means we are well on the way towards healing or removal of conflict (e.g. hysteria, nevrosis).

    The same resistance can occur when the therapist explains the latent content to the patient. The presentation of latent motives "seems alarming rather than pleasant, and the acknowledgement of them, even as mere dream-wishes, is not entirely easy." (Watkins 1997) In this case, the patient will not accept the interpretation, deny it as nonsense or will even become aggressive toward the therapist. In Freud's opinion, this reaction can be regarded as a direct hit: "the resistance is a certain sign for conflict; something resists what wants to be expressed." (Bras 1977: 196).

    In what follows we will try to understand the nature and role of this process. Special psychical instance, which causes the difference between manifest and latent content Freud called the censorship of dreams.

    2.1.3 The censorship of dream
    It is obvious from relation between latent motive and manifest realization of dream that initial internal stimulus undergoes a lot of changes until it realizes as dream. Some parts of latent content appear differently, or not at all, in the manifest content. This transformation is a result of the censorship, which deforms dreams because of scandalous wishes
    3 that arise when we sleep. The censorship is therefore "a quite systematic process of disguise and distortion of things, which are painful or otherwise unacceptable to the dreamer." (Watkins 1997)

    Throughout the life and especially with upbringing, we inherit social norms, beliefs, habits and patterns of behaviour typical for our culture, which are not in conformity with primary instinctive needs. If we do not succeed in satisfying these needs in one way or the other, we suppress them deep in subconsciousness; a process that is called repression. In dreams, when relation between ego, superego and id becomes loose, these repressed wishes arise as internal stimuli. Dreams are not only an answer to them, but also a way of satisfaction of these wishes. Infantile dreams are especially suitable for observing this as manifest and latent content are identical. Those wishes, which have not been satisfied during the day are fulfiled in dreams. This seem logical if we concider the fact that dreams care for peacful sleep. The internal stimulus is in this case unsatisfied wish on which our mentality answers with hallucinatory fulfilment if the wish is admissible. Hence the dream can be called a wish-fulfilment.

    When these wishes are not in conformity with superego, the task of censorship is to preserve ethically and esthetically clean ego. In some cases the wishes are too intense and the censorship cannot just transform them. Then we experience a feeling of anguish, which is a sign that suppressed wish proved to be stronger than the censorship. In consequence, this uneasyness wakes up the dreamer before suppressed wish is fulfilled - something which is in contrast with the censorship. In this case the dream did not manage to complete its task but its purpose did not change thereby either. "Even a watchman needs to wake up the sleeping, that is when he feels too weak to remove disturbance or danger alone." (Freud 1977: 212).

    The censorship, however, is not a precisly fixed centre in brains, it is rather a "term for some dynamic realtionship" (Freud 1977: 141) between answering on internal stimulus and admissibility of this stimulus for superego. When such suppressed wish is strong enough, the censorship takes care of leaving out, modification, and shift of material and so forms manifest content of dream. The resistance of dream interpretation is also a result of censorship, which task is to preserve deformed dreams even when the dreamer already wakes up.

    The understanding of how the censorship works is essential for dream interpretation. We can only discover latent content of dream when concidering the work of censorship. The censorship is that code without which translation of manifest content would not be possible. It is not the only one though. Freud's dream symbols are a great help.

    2.1.4 Dream symbolism
    Freud derived dream symbols from the resistance of dream interpretation. He noticed that resistance regularly occurred with certain elements of dreams even in dreams of mentally healthy people. He claimed that formation of visual answer on stimulus (dream) is not coincidental. He figured out that some parts of manifest content typically correspond with certain latent content. Freud called these manifest elements symbols - to which he ascribed constant meaning. The dream symbols are in his opinion more or less sexual.

    Number three has in dreams symbolic meaning of man's sexual organ. All dream ideas which consist of three parts can mean the man's sexual organ. Phallus is symbolically substituted with all things that are similar to it by their form, namely long things that jut out: mountains, rocks, sticks, umbrellas, poles, trees… Then objects for which the penetration in the body and harming is characteristic - weapons: knifes, daggers, lances, sabres, swords... and fire arms: guns, rifles, revolvers, cannons… Obviously, the phallus is also substituted with objects from which water runs: pipes, watering-pots, fountains… and with objects that can be lenghtened: hanging lights, extensible pens, aerials… Baloons, airplanes, helicopters, rockets, etc. are symbols of erection. Less evident male sexual symbols are reptiles and fish, especially a symbol of snake. A hat and a coat as well as various machines and appliances have the same meaning.

    Female genitalia are symbolically represented with hollow objects that can contain things: shafts, pits and caves, vessels and bottles, boxes, suitcases, tins, pockets, closets, stoves, ships… The same holds for house with entrances, passages and doors, churches, chapels, castles, mansions, fortresses and even landscape itself. The material such as wood and paper as well as objects made of them: a table, a book… symbolize the same. Typical female symbols among animals are snails and mussels and their shells. Apples, peaches and fruits in general symbolize breasts.

    All kind of playing (playing instruments also), sliding, slipping and breaking branches are symbols of masturbation. The teeth falling out and extraction of them are symbols of castration as a punishment for masturbating (castration's complex).

    Various rhytmical activities such as dance, riding, raising and threatening with weapon symbolize sexual intercourse itself. Typical activities that symbolize sexual intercourse are also climbing and going down the ladder or stairs and running inside a house. The queen and king or empress and emperor and similar relations symbolize parents. The fall into water or raising out of it symbolizes birth.

    Many dreams which seemed puzzling before, become more clear when concidering Freud's symbols and the censorship of dream. Although dream symbols allow for direct interpretation of dreams, we must never do that without previous knowledge of patient's psychological background. The dream can be understood, Freud held, only in light of the dreamer's associations to it.4 After telling the dream, the therapist has to ask the patient to engage in free associations stimulated by certain element of the dream. When following the spontaneous flow of thoughts and feelings, the patient is asked to describe it as fully as possible. The patient, however, has to consider an agreement that s/he will tell every idea without trying to censor or control it in any way. We tell the patient "a rule that must not be broken: when telling [dreams] s/he must not leave out any idea even if s/he gets one of four objections: that idea is irrelevant, too senseless, that is not connected with the issue or is too embarrassing." (Freud 1977: 117) Only such a rule will ensure efficient relationship between the dream teller and dream interpreter.


    3.2 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DREAM INTERPRETATIONS

    3.2.1 Finality vs. causality
    Freud interpreted dreams from the causal point of view. He searched for a cause of dreams and figured out that dreams are merely the answers on internal stimuli. When interpreting dreams, he found out that internal stimuli are unsatisfied wishes, which are in most cases conflicting in nature. The interpretation of dream was finished for Freud as soon as he found such wish and hence the conflict. From then on he used common methods of healing.

    On the other hand, Jung did not only search for the cause of dream, he interpreted dreams from the standpoint of finality. He claimed that dream, as any other psychological phenomenon, has its purpose, namely "conformity to the end in view." (Jung 1978: 341) This orientation to the end can be regarded as fundamental meaning. Such psychological meaning is characteristic also for our everyday reactions. "Fundamental meaning of anger, which occures if someone offended us, is revange, and if we show our sadness to everyone, the fundamental meaning of such behaviour is to cause others to feel pity for us." (Jung 1987:341) Jung claimed that every dream contains such fundamental meaning. >

    The most important question Freud would ask himself when interpreting the dream is: What is the cause of this dream? On the other hand, Jung prefered questions such as: What is the purpose of this dream? What effect is it meant to have? The answers on these questions are important as they help to reveal the essence of dream, which usually contains a warning that there exists some trouble. When searching for the purpose of dream, we can even find the solution to the problem. Jung says that "just like it is inevitable for us to think when we are consciously dealing with some problem to find the solution, this process automatically continues also in more or less unconscious part of sleeping." Dreams are not mere wish-fulfilment, Jung held, but above all rational dealing with ourselves.

    3.2.2 Dream Symbols In order to point out the differences between both interpretations of dreams regarding the meaning and role of dream symbols, I shall quote the following dream-report.10 One young patient tells the dream: "I am in the tree in unknown garden and I am picking apples. I look around carefully to see if I am being watched." We have learnt that patient's associations are a must when interpreting dreams. So let us tell the associations that the patient told to the therapist. The content of dream reminds the patient on his childhood, when he picked some of pears in the foreign garden without permission. The feeling of bad conscience, intensified in dream, reminds him on an event from the previous day. On the street he met and talked for a while with his acquaintance, a woman who was otherwise indifferent to him. In that moment, a gentleman, who he knew too, passed by and he got the same feeling as when he stole the pears. Picking apples reminds him also on the scene from the paradise. He could never really understand how picking prohibited apples had such a crucial consequence for the first human. Sometime ago he was constantly mad at God's punishment for man's sins, which is why he believed God created people in the way they are: curious and greedy. He also remembered on his father who punished him few times for no obvious reason. The worse was when he got caught while secretly watching the girls that were swimming. In connection to this, he confessed that he had recently started an affair with some house-maid, but he could not induce her to engage in sexual intercourse. He had a date with her in the evening before this dream occurred.

    Now, Freud would interpret this dream above all as fulfilment of wish that remained unsatisfied during the day. Picking apples in connection with the patient's associations is an expression of erotic scene. The censorship transformed the latent motive into symbolic image, where apples symbolize breasts. As regards the associations of father's punishment and the paradise, we could say that the events in the past significantly transformed patient's superego (the influence of social norms, patterns of behaviour) and are therefore responsible for the repression of sexual desire. Also the uneasy feeling he had when talking to his acquaintance was a consequence of inherited social norms.

    The dream with apples is undoubtedly an erotic scene for Jung too. However, more important is the myth of Adam and Eve. It is a myth of sin that was punished with Adam's fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. Considering patient's associations, we can say that erotic dream scene was presented as sin. The dream points at improper relationship to the opposite gender. The patient's central conflict is expressed in desire to have a sexual intercourse on one hand, and commit a sin on the other. He also has a fear of being observed, which is present in the myth of Adam and Eve too. Eve persuaded Adam to take the apple off the tree, but he could not hide from God seeing it.

    Freud's symbols are not perfect it seems, since the patient could as well dream that "he opens the door with a key, travels in the plane, makes love with his mother, etc." (Jung 1978: 346) and all would have the same meaning.

    3.2.3 Wish-fulfilment denies Jung's interpretation
    According to Freud, dreams are a form of fulfilling suppressed, in most cases sexual wishes. These wishes are internal stimuli, which in dream transform into hallucinatory fulfilment. All visual dream scenes are therefore wish-fulfilment. The manifest content of dream serves the purpose of latent content, and even when taking the censorship into account, we cannot accept certain aspects of Jung's interpretation, such as objective and subjective level of interpretation or favourable and unfavourable dreams. All the qualities of Jung's interpretation thus cannot have a firm basis, for they are derived from the manifest content. Freud's wish-fulfilment denies any dreaming of "relation to the object" (Bras 1977: 214), projection of the dreamer's qualities…

    Let us illustrate this by another example.11 A child tells his dream: "I see my brother in the chest." Freud claimed that this dream is an ideal example of wish-fulfilment; the child "would like to see his brother to confine." (Freud 1977:130) Jung's interpretation, however, would rather focus on relationship between the child and his brother. Such dreams can be a suggestion that the kid overvalues his brother, and that perhaps his brother takes advantage of him in this relationship. The objective level of interpretation would be very important in this case, as Jung would further explore the relationship between the kid and his brother. Freud on the other hand, would probably understand this dream merely as fulfilment of an infantile wish.

    Also, Freud's concept that dreams preserve sleep denies Jung's dramatic structure of dream, and especially culmination phase. In response, Jung held:

    "We should not overlook the fact that the very dreams which disturb sleep most - and these are not uncommon - have a dramatic structure which aims logically at creating a highly affective situation, and builds it up so efficiently that it unquestionably wakes the dreamer. Freud explains these dreams by saying that the censor was no longer able to suppress the painful affect. It seems to me that this explanation fails to do justice to the facts. Dreams which concern themselves in a very disagreeable manner with the painful experiences and activities of daily life and expose just the most disturbing thoughts with the most painful distinctness are known to everyone. It would, in my opinion, be unjustified to speak here of the dream's sleep-preserving, affect-disguising function. One would have to stand reality on its head to see in these dreams a confirmation of Freud's view." (Jung 1978: 485)

    4 CONCLUSION

    Jung's and Freud's interpretations of dreams are similar as they both stress importance of dreams in therapy and are based on premise that dreams reflect conflicts. The process of acquireing data from the dreams told is similar too. Both interpretations repose on dreamer's associations, which come from subconsciousness and are therefore determined.

    However, an important difference can be observed in use of information acqueired with interpretation of dreams. For Freud, dreams were merely a mirror of conflict (suppressed unsatisfied desire), which needed to be discovered, whereas Jung searched for solutions already expressed in dreams. Jung did not agree with Freud that all dream themes are only a subject to repressed sexual traumas. He claimed that we can also repress things like "the problem of social adaptation, tragical life circumstances, a need for respect, and so forth." (Jung 1989: 162)

    Jung started to doubt in Freud's sexual theory at the very first meeting with him, when he realized they had different views on interpretation of dreams and psychology in general. Despite that, Freud helped Jung (The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900) a great deal to understand the resistance of interpretation of dreams. Jung was then a young doctor, who shared many of the Freud's ideas. However, Jung soon realized that certain parts of Freud's interpretation (e.g. dream symbols) were conformed to verify the sexual theory. Rather than accepting the sexual theory as the only truth, Jung started to accumulate his knowledge through experiences he had with various patients. Jung's methodology thus prefered the induction over deduction. Or rather, as he put it:

    "I have no theory about dreams, I do not know how dreams arise. And I am not at all sure that - my way of handling dreams even deserves the name of a "method." I share all your prejudices against dream-interpretation as the quintessence of uncertainty and arbitrariness. On the other hand, I know that if we meditate on a dream sufficiently long and thoroughly, if we carry it around with us and turn it over and over, something almost always comes of it. This something is not of course a scientific result to be boasted about or rationalized; but it is an important practical hint which shows the patient what the unconscious is aiming at."12

    I am inclined to think that the differences in approaches of both scientists, which eventually separated a pupil and a teacher, originate from social and perhaps political circumstances.13 Freud developed his theory in harsh times. We can readily understand that the sexual theory was the last thing society wanted at that time. The most shocking of all was Freud's concept of the libido, what at the bottom meant that all creative impulses and the entire motivating force of human behaviour are an expression of repressed sexuality. His theory was on the brink of ruin as the conservative scientists fought with all their might against it.

    However, the young generation of scientists saved Freud along with his theory. Jung's association experiment proved that there is some truth in Freud's theory. He defended Freud in almost all scientific debates despite the fact that his career was at stake. Freud realized that his theory was spreading around the world. As soon as international psychoanalitic association had been founded, his theory would be preserved. Therefore Freud viewed Jung as his pupil, successor and a leader of such association. Jung, however, knew that he was not "able to do that correctly, that is, in his way represent his standpoints, because [Jung's] main ambition was not personal reputation, but to research the truth." (Jung 1989: 171, 172) Jung decided to leave the psycho-analysis and start analytical school of psychology after first meeting he had with Freud. In 13 hours lasting discussion, Freud passionately said: "My dear Jung, promise me you will never abandon sexual theory. It is the most important thing. You see, we have to make a dogma out of it, a dam that will never become loose." (Jung 1989: 164)

    When saying that Freud had occultism in his mind. Jung could not accept to reject the relevance of occultism and especially mythology as his concept was based on them (e.g. collective unconsciousness). He understood what Freud wanted to achieve, to set psycho-analysis as "belief, which cannot be discussed and is put in practice only where you want to remove doubts for ever." (Jung 1989: 165)

    2.2 JUNG'S ANALYTICAL INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

    Carl Gustav Jung is a scientist, who assigned more importance to dreams and dream work as perhaps no other of his colleagues. His father studied theology due to financial problems,5 which is why he later began to have doubts as to whether the knowledge he was passing on to others was true or not. Therefore the father influenced on his young son Carl so that he soon started to deal with metaphysical questions. In his writing Jung showed the close parallels between ancient myths and dreams. Jung explained the relationship between the unconscious and conscious in his original way and proposed the now well-known idea of collective unconscious. "Ultimately Jung believed that by understanding how one's personal unconscious integrates with the collective unconscious, a person can achieve a state of individuation, or wholeness of self." (Vered 1997)

    Much like Freud, Jung also emphasised the importance of interpretation of dreams in therapy. The most significant dream is that from the night before a patient visit the therapist. This dream is so called initial dream.

    2.2.1 Initial dream
    The interpretation of initial dream is so important because there is a good chance that the main problem of patient will be discovered right at the beginning of therapy. Jung, too, claimed that dreams are psychic phenomenon and that they can mirror central conflict of dreamer. All dreams at certain point in our life, Jung held, "reflect our life situation until we seriously start to concern ourselves with it, that is, so long as we do not draw back completely or remove it." (Bras 1977: 206)

    We all know how concerns, problems or excitement can occupy our mind just before we fall asleep. For instance, as we may put it, a boy who is going on a trip tomorrow, will hardly think of anything else because of his excitement. It is also very likely that once he manages to fall asleep, his dreams will contain elements of the trip he is about to have when he will wake up.

    It is not easy to decide to visit the therapist. The state of alert mind, which is caused by the importance of the event, can produce a strong impulse for the manifestation of patient's conflict in dreams. Furthermore, such dreams usually contain a prognosis: ways of resolving the conflict, possible troubles and even final result.

    Jung claimed, that all dreams in certain time frame express most important internal process of person, namely some conflict or complex, even when there is no obvious interconnection between respective dreams. All dreams will be pointing at conflict that the dreamer should become conscious of, and remove it. This of course does not mean that each and every dream reflects conflicting psychic state, nor that people who do not remember dreams do not have any conflicts. Special importance must be put on repeating dreams, which as a rule deal with the same conflict but from different points of view. A series of dreams actually indicates more complex conflict; "dreams show that we rightly hesitate in some situation, or we cannot avoid it, and they always point in same direction – at same solution." (Bras 1977: 206).

    Jung is of the opinion that precise dream record is a basis and a minimum for every dream interpretation. The patient must not leave out, beautify or in any other way deform dream material. Only such material is the real text of subconsciousness. S/he must also tell as many details according to certain dream element as possible (what, who, where, when, why, how…). The therapist's task then, is to carefully write down all these details as they suggest the direction of main dream flow. In case that patient does not remember some part of dream, s/he will be asked to use imagination. The ideas that patient tells are psychotic fantasies, which are coming directly from the subconsciousness and move around the central problem.

    Even when the therapist gathered and processed dream material, s/he cannot know the meaning of dream. It is impossible to adequately explain a dream without patient's cooperation and being acquainted with patient's life situation (e.g. social status, buisness worries, economic and marital status, social aspirations, inteligence…). The therapist begins interpretation with easier and more evident parts of dream. With patient's help, s/he then moves further on more difficult and complicated parts. It is important to notice the sequence of dream events, since they are interconnected, and hence the relation between them reveals the meaning of dream. Jung discovered that a course of events in dreams is similar to that in a stage play.

    2.2.2 Dramatic structure of dreams
    The majority of dreams are composed of four parts or phases, pretty much like in drama. Firstly, we need to figure out the scene and time of dream as well as dramatis personae. In first phase, which can be regarded as the exposition, the initial situation (setting) is represented – already pointing at central conflict expressed in dream. The second phase is the plot and contains something new (essential change), which leads the dream in the third phase: the culmination. In this phase the most critical things happen, which bring the dream to a closure: the fourth phase or denouement. Jung attributed extraordinary significance to the end of dream. The end of dream is so important, Jung held, because we cannot consciously influence on the outcome (i.e. change the end), and dreams so reflect the real situation. "Nature is often obscure or impenetrable, but she is not, like man, deceitful. We must therefore take it that the dream is just what it pretends to be, neither more nor less. If it shows something in a negative light, there is no reason for assuming that it is meant positively."
    6

    According to the end of dream, he discriminated between favourable and unfavourable dreams. If we were to reverse the well-known proverb, then for dreams we may say that a good end makes a good beginning. Favourable dreams have quieting effect and direct us to the most constructive ways of solving problems. On the contrary, unfavourable dreams contain a warning of, perhaps life important, negative changes. Hence dreams can be said to have a prospective function; they warn us about bright or dark future. Favourable or unfavourable end of dream, however, must not be taken as a final and absolute meaning of dream. This can be done only after several interconnected dreams.

    2.2.3 Archetypes
    Dreams are also an expression of collective generic experiences, which refer to basic life problems and manifest in terms of symbols and myths – thoughts and memories shared by all humanity. The interpreter of dreams must therefore be familiar with various myths, religions, cults, rituals and fairy tales in order to fully understand the meaning of dreams. These mythological motifs, which can be found in dreams, Jung called archetypes. Archetypes or primordal images are "specific forms and pictorial relationships, which did not only consistently appear in all ages and in all latitudes, but also appear in individual dreams, fantasies, visions and ideas." (Jung 1978: 396) This observation led Jung to think that there exists collective unconsciousness – the sum of all experiences that human race acquired in its phylogenetic development. The access to collective unconsciousness is particularly easy, when a person has to take an important decision or is in life situation, crucial for his/her personal growth. S/he gets a suggestion from the collective unconsciousness in form of archetypal situation. If that happens in dream, then such dream is called the big dream, which "is expressed in language of universal human experiences, condensed in rich, vivid symbols, in eternal ancient images that [sic] overwhelm us completely." (Bras 1977: 178) Wide knowledge is required when interpreting the big dreams. This knowledge, however, cannot be simply memorized; it can only be an insight into experiences of the person who uses it.

    The gender of dream actors plays an important role in interpretation of dreams. The actor of the same gender is the dreamer's shadow (usually regarded as the dark aspects of the personality) to which Jung ascribed basic instincts, responsible for unpleasant and morally inadmissible thoughts in dreams. The level of consciousness, which is in accordance with the dreamer's social role, is called the persona. "The persona consists of what a person appears to be to others, in contrast to what s/he actually is. That is to say the persona is the role the individual chooses to play in life, the impression and the way s/he wishes to appear to, and makes on, the outside world." (Vered 1997)

    Dream actors of the opposite gender have an interesting role too. Such figures, which had formed throughout millenniums of men and women living together, come from collective unconsciousness as a balancing experience to help the dreamer understand the nature of opposite gender. Female figure that appears in dreams of men is called the anima, while same male figure is called the animus.

    "Every man carries within him the eternal image of woman, not the image of this or that particular woman, but a definite feminine image. This image is fundamentally unconscious, an hereditary factor of primordial origin engraved in the living organic system of the man, an imprint or "archetype" of all the ancestral experiences of the female, a deposit, as it were, of all the impressions ever made by woman - in short, an inherited system of psychic adaptation. Even if no women existed, it would still be possible, at any given time, to deduce from this unconscious image exactly how a woman would have to be constituted psychically. The same is true of the woman: she too has her inborn image of man."7

    The features of anima are expressed in archetype of extremely attractive girl, strict, cold seductress and a beauty… And the features of animus in archetype of a sailor, wise old man, an officer, a doctor… Or to illustrate the two archetypes with Jung's words: "When animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first sight)."8

    A king, the pope, a commander-in-chief and a dictator symbolize the "big man". A queen or female judge and similar figures symbolize the creators of our faith.

    "Archetypes are complexes of experience that come upon us like fate, and their effects are felt in our most personal life. The anima no longer crosses our path as a goddess, but, it may be, as an intimately personal misadventure, or perhaps as our best venture. When, for instance, a highly esteemed professor in his seventies abandons his family and runs off with a young red-headed actress, we know that the gods have claimed another victim."9

    2.2.4 Objective and subjective level of interpretation
    It is often observed that in dreams, people who we otherwise know good, behave differently than it is typical for them. Objective levelof interpretation enables us to discover the dreamer's true relation to these persons. In other words, in dreams the dreamer expresses his/her relationship to the person s/he knows. When we connect dream content with everyday life situation, we discover that dream relationship is not necessarily the same. For instance, our relationship to person, who we overvalue in wakening state, may be undervalued in dreams. This is to understand as suggestion that less respectful relationship could bring a better social intercourse.

    When however, the relationship is not apparent to us, namely does not connect with the dream story, then we interpret dreams from subjective level. In this case, we search for dreamer's qualities projected into other dream persons. The dreamer is shown his/her own tendencies of characther, to which s/he did not devote enough attention. Hence, the subjective level of interpretation helps to recognize the dreamer's own points of view.

    2.2 JUNG'S ANALYTICAL INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

    Carl Gustav Jung is a scientist, who assigned more importance to dreams and dream work as perhaps no other of his colleagues. His father studied theology due to financial problems,5 which is why he later began to have doubts as to whether the knowledge he was passing on to others was true or not. Therefore the father influenced on his young son Carl so that he soon started to deal with metaphysical questions. In his writing Jung showed the close parallels between ancient myths and dreams. Jung explained the relationship between the unconscious and conscious in his original way and proposed the now well-known idea of collective unconscious. "Ultimately Jung believed that by understanding how one's personal unconscious integrates with the collective unconscious, a person can achieve a state of individuation, or wholeness of self." (Vered 1997)

    Much like Freud, Jung also emphasised the importance of interpretation of dreams in therapy. The most significant dream is that from the night before a patient visit the therapist. This dream is so called initial dream.

    2.2.1 Initial dream
    The interpretation of initial dream is so important because there is a good chance that the main problem of patient will be discovered right at the beginning of therapy. Jung, too, claimed that dreams are psychic phenomenon and that they can mirror central conflict of dreamer. All dreams at certain point in our life, Jung held, "reflect our life situation until we seriously start to concern ourselves with it, that is, so long as we do not draw back completely or remove it." (Bras 1977: 206)

    We all know how concerns, problems or excitement can occupy our mind just before we fall asleep. For instance, as we may put it, a boy who is going on a trip tomorrow, will hardly think of anything else because of his excitement. It is also very likely that once he manages to fall asleep, his dreams will contain elements of the trip he is about to have when he will wake up.

    It is not easy to decide to visit the therapist. The state of alert mind, which is caused by the importance of the event, can produce a strong impulse for the manifestation of patient's conflict in dreams. Furthermore, such dreams usually contain a prognosis: ways of resolving the conflict, possible troubles and even final result.

    Jung claimed, that all dreams in certain time frame express most important internal process of person, namely some conflict or complex, even when there is no obvious interconnection between respective dreams. All dreams will be pointing at conflict that the dreamer should become conscious of, and remove it. This of course does not mean that each and every dream reflects conflicting psychic state, nor that people who do not remember dreams do not have any conflicts. Special importance must be put on repeating dreams, which as a rule deal with the same conflict but from different points of view. A series of dreams actually indicates more complex conflict; "dreams show that we rightly hesitate in some situation, or we cannot avoid it, and they always point in same direction – at same solution." (Bras 1977: 206).

    Jung is of the opinion that precise dream record is a basis and a minimum for every dream interpretation. The patient must not leave out, beautify or in any other way deform dream material. Only such material is the real text of subconsciousness. S/he must also tell as many details according to certain dream element as possible (what, who, where, when, why, how…). The therapist's task then, is to carefully write down all these details as they suggest the direction of main dream flow. In case that patient does not remember some part of dream, s/he will be asked to use imagination. The ideas that patient tells are psychotic fantasies, which are coming directly from the subconsciousness and move around the central problem.

    Even when the therapist gathered and processed dream material, s/he cannot know the meaning of dream. It is impossible to adequately explain a dream without patient's cooperation and being acquainted with patient's life situation (e.g. social status, buisness worries, economic and marital status, social aspirations, inteligence…). The therapist begins interpretation with easier and more evident parts of dream. With patient's help, s/he then moves further on more difficult and complicated parts. It is important to notice the sequence of dream events, since they are interconnected, and hence the relation between them reveals the meaning of dream. Jung discovered that a course of events in dreams is similar to that in a stage play.

    2.2.2 Dramatic structure of dreams
    The majority of dreams are composed of four parts or phases, pretty much like in drama. Firstly, we need to figure out the scene and time of dream as well as dramatis personae. In first phase, which can be regarded as the exposition, the initial situation (setting) is represented – already pointing at central conflict expressed in dream. The second phase is the plot and contains something new (essential change), which leads the dream in the third phase: the culmination. In this phase the most critical things happen, which bring the dream to a closure: the fourth phase or denouement. Jung attributed extraordinary significance to the end of dream. The end of dream is so important, Jung held, because we cannot consciously influence on the outcome (i.e. change the end), and dreams so reflect the real situation. "Nature is often obscure or impenetrable, but she is not, like man, deceitful. We must therefore take it that the dream is just what it pretends to be, neither more nor less. If it shows something in a negative light, there is no reason for assuming that it is meant positively."
    6

    According to the end of dream, he discriminated between favourable and unfavourable dreams. If we were to reverse the well-known proverb, then for dreams we may say that a good end makes a good beginning. Favourable dreams have quieting effect and direct us to the most constructive ways of solving problems. On the contrary, unfavourable dreams contain a warning of, perhaps life important, negative changes. Hence dreams can be said to have a prospective function; they warn us about bright or dark future. Favourable or unfavourable end of dream, however, must not be taken as a final and absolute meaning of dream. This can be done only after several interconnected dreams.

    2.2.3 Archetypes
    Dreams are also an expression of collective generic experiences, which refer to basic life problems and manifest in terms of symbols and myths – thoughts and memories shared by all humanity. The interpreter of dreams must therefore be familiar with various myths, religions, cults, rituals and fairy tales in order to fully understand the meaning of dreams. These mythological motifs, which can be found in dreams, Jung called archetypes. Archetypes or primordal images are "specific forms and pictorial relationships, which did not only consistently appear in all ages and in all latitudes, but also appear in individual dreams, fantasies, visions and ideas." (Jung 1978: 396) This observation led Jung to think that there exists collective unconsciousness – the sum of all experiences that human race acquired in its phylogenetic development. The access to collective unconsciousness is particularly easy, when a person has to take an important decision or is in life situation, crucial for his/her personal growth. S/he gets a suggestion from the collective unconsciousness in form of archetypal situation. If that happens in dream, then such dream is called the big dream, which "is expressed in language of universal human experiences, condensed in rich, vivid symbols, in eternal ancient images that [sic] overwhelm us completely." (Bras 1977: 178) Wide knowledge is required when interpreting the big dreams. This knowledge, however, cannot be simply memorized; it can only be an insight into experiences of the person who uses it.

    The gender of dream actors plays an important role in interpretation of dreams. The actor of the same gender is the dreamer's shadow (usually regarded as the dark aspects of the personality) to which Jung ascribed basic instincts, responsible for unpleasant and morally inadmissible thoughts in dreams. The level of consciousness, which is in accordance with the dreamer's social role, is called the persona. "The persona consists of what a person appears to be to others, in contrast to what s/he actually is. That is to say the persona is the role the individual chooses to play in life, the impression and the way s/he wishes to appear to, and makes on, the outside world." (Vered 1997)

    Dream actors of the opposite gender have an interesting role too. Such figures, which had formed throughout millenniums of men and women living together, come from collective unconsciousness as a balancing experience to help the dreamer understand the nature of opposite gender. Female figure that appears in dreams of men is called the anima, while same male figure is called the animus.

    "Every man carries within him the eternal image of woman, not the image of this or that particular woman, but a definite feminine image. This image is fundamentally unconscious, an hereditary factor of primordial origin engraved in the living organic system of the man, an imprint or "archetype" of all the ancestral experiences of the female, a deposit, as it were, of all the impressions ever made by woman - in short, an inherited system of psychic adaptation. Even if no women existed, it would still be possible, at any given time, to deduce from this unconscious image exactly how a woman would have to be constituted psychically. The same is true of the woman: she too has her inborn image of man."7

    The features of anima are expressed in archetype of extremely attractive girl, strict, cold seductress and a beauty… And the features of animus in archetype of a sailor, wise old man, an officer, a doctor… Or to illustrate the two archetypes with Jung's words: "When animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first sight)."8

    A king, the pope, a commander-in-chief and a dictator symbolize the "big man". A queen or female judge and similar figures symbolize the creators of our faith.

    "Archetypes are complexes of experience that come upon us like fate, and their effects are felt in our most personal life. The anima no longer crosses our path as a goddess, but, it may be, as an intimately personal misadventure, or perhaps as our best venture. When, for instance, a highly esteemed professor in his seventies abandons his family and runs off with a young red-headed actress, we know that the gods have claimed another victim."9

    2.2.4 Objective and subjective level of interpretation
    It is often observed that in dreams, people who we otherwise know good, behave differently than it is typical for them. Objective levelof interpretation enables us to discover the dreamer's true relation to these persons. In other words, in dreams the dreamer expresses his/her relationship to the person s/he knows. When we connect dream content with everyday life situation, we discover that dream relationship is not necessarily the same. For instance, our relationship to person, who we overvalue in wakening state, may be undervalued in dreams. This is to understand as suggestion that less respectful relationship could bring a better social intercourse.

    When however, the relationship is not apparent to us, namely does not connect with the dream story, then we interpret dreams from subjective level. In this case, we search for dreamer's qualities projected into other dream persons. The dreamer is shown his/her own tendencies of characther, to which s/he did not devote enough attention. Hence, the subjective level of interpretation helps to recognize the dreamer's own points of view.

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