El Sueno -The Dream – Frida Kahlo. 1940. Wikioo
“No dream symbol can be separated from the individual who dreams it, and there is no definite or straightforward interpretation of any dream.”
Carl Jung
Jungian theory of understanding dreams is rich in its complexity; in this post I have distilled some of the important aspects out of the mass of brilliant concepts and ideas that make up this body of knowledge. However, this can, inevitably, only be touching the surface in the space available.
It is important at the start to emphasise that the concepts below are part of classical Jungian theory; these are very useful to know and to think about. However, many people will find some Jungian theories about sex and gender rather rigid, sexist and homophobic. There is no concept of gender-fluidity, being non-binary or trans. Post-Jungians continue to develop and modify Jungian theory to fit with more contemporary ideas:
“Clearly, some of Jung’s ideas are objectionable to modern ways of thinking. Women, in particular, have pointed to Jung’s sexism, his turn-of-the-century Swiss-German patriarchal perspective on women and men. My wife, an avowed feminist, has been most valuable in keeping me watchful of sexism in Jungian theory and practice. Nevertheless, I have tried not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but to weigh what is useful to each and every one of my clients. It is important to me to respect my analysands’ own process of awakening to gender issues in the language and images that make sense to them.”
Andrea Samuels’ book, below, written in 1986, is still very highly regarded. There are several schools of post-Jungian thought; this book explores the changes that have occurred since Jung’s death.
A more contemporary approach can be found in ‘The Cambridge Companion to Jung,’ 2nd Edition, by Polly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Dawson (Eds.) 2008 and ‘Exploring Spirituality from a Post-Jungian Perspective: Clinical and Personal Reflections. Ruth Williams, 2023, Routledge.
- A brief introduction to some of Jung’s thoughts on understanding dreams…
Helene Schjerfbeck – The Door. 1884. Wikimedia Commons
“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul.”
Carl Gustav Jung
For the renowned Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist Carl Jung, (1885-1961) dreams were, indeed, a way of directly entering into the realms of the unconscious. Jung worked intricately with symbols and metaphors and their deep-rooted meaning in dreams. He saw dreams as messages from the unconscious. Like Freud, he has had an enormous influence on modern psychology. However, as Jung developed his ideas further, his approach began to differ markedly from that of Freud.
- The Collective and the Personal Unconscious
Whilst it is important to understand the meaning of all dream symbols personally for the dreamer, which Jung certainly recognised, he also believed in the idea of the Collective Unconscious.
This is the part of the unconscious that is not created through personal events in our lives, but is made up of a shared, inherited set of concepts common to all humans. These universal, inborn, themes, ideas and ways of thinking were seen by Jung as explaining why people tend to have similar myth and dream symbols throughout the world.
Analytical psychology, founded by Jung, focusses on the patient’s experience of the collective unconscious and its recurring archetypes; these are innate and archaic symbols that include, for example, the persona, the shadow, the anima and animus and the self. These are Jung’s four main archetypes.
This was one of the areas about which Jung and Freud disagreed; unlike Freud, Jung believed that the unconscious was made up of a personal part and a collective part. The personal unconscious incorporates our memories of experiences throughout our lives, some of which may be repressed. However, these may still affect our lives today, without our conscious awareness of their existence.
Jung regarded the ego as the conscious mind; he called it the ‘commander in chief’ of the psyche and believed it was at the centre of our consciousness.
- The Four Major Jungian Archetypes
Whilst Jung identified many archetypes that arise in our dreams, he acknowledged that there are countless others.
- The Persona
Woman With A Mask – Lorenzo Lippi. Wikioo
“There is always some element of pretence about the persona, for it is a kind of shop window in which we like to display our best wares.”
Anthony Stevens, Jung: A Very Short Introduction
The persona represents the way in which we show ourselves to others. The word itself comes from the Latin word for mask. In different situations and with different people, we wear various masks, so that our true feelings and impulses are hidden.
This is protective of ourselves, an adaptive fitting-in with society’s expectations and norms. It is a way of being that can, if overdone, mean that we lose touch with who we really are.
Dreams involving the persona can include images of clothes, make-up, disguise, and various people.
2. The Shadow
Behind the shadow – James Gill. 2003. Wikimedia Commons.
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it… But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East
- The personal shadow
What is our shadow and how does it manifest itself in our dreams and our lives?
If we are unaware of the ‘monster inside,’ of our own potential to be cruel, murderous, evil or sadistic, then, inevitably, we will search for others to label as monstrous, thus avoiding facing our own darkness, our own shadow side. The energy that needs to be used to facilitate facing the monsters inside is instead redirected onto others, projected and disowned.
This way of thinking develops into one that abhors difference, hates, yet needs, ‘the enemy.’ Then we are unable to see the self in the other, cannot recognise that in all of us lies the potential for evil.
Shadow-Man. 1963. Remedios Varro. Wikioo.
The above painting perfectly depicts what can happen when our shadow is not worked through in therapy. Then it will take over, become ‘us,’ a walking, talking, unconscious shadow-being that will, inevitably, cause pain and hurt to ourselves and others. It may be angry, violent, bitter, deceitful… a raging and uncontrolled entity. It can appear in dreams as a monster, snake, or other wild beasts.
- The collective shadow
Jung believed that there are two aspects of the shadow: the personal and the collective. The latter refers to the hidden shadow-side of society.
The enigma of fate – Giorgio De Chirico. Wikioo
“What is the fate of great nations but a summation of the psychic changes in individuals?”
C.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
In. global way, it could be said that war and fighting represent an acting out of people’s unconscious rage and violence. War may thus be understood as regarding the other as malign and negating the hidden, unknown, ‘monstrous’ part of the self on a collective scale.
War (mural study, War Department building, Washington, D.C. )1941– Kindred Mcleary. Wikioo
“Much of the evil in the world is due to the fact that man, in general, is hopelessly unconscious.”
Jung
Awareness of both the personal and collective shadows is crucial if we are to bring about any kind of change. Working on our personal shadow in therapy is a way of becoming conscious of what lies beyond our awareness. Knowing oneself can lead to a more open and resolved state of mind; if more people were able to do this, the collective shadow could change.
“The tendency to see one’s shadow “out there” in one’s neighbour or in another race or culture is the most dangerous aspect of the modern psyche. It has created two devastating wars in this century and threatens the destruction of all the fine achievements of our modern world. We all decry war but collectively we move toward it. It is not the monsters of the world who make such chaos but the collective shadow to which every one of us has contributed.”
Robert A. Johnson
- The Anima/Animus
These archetypes of animus/anima represent aspects of the unconscious; they are not gender-specific, for inside every man and woman are the figures of the animus and anima. Jung’s theory involved the masculine and feminine aspects of the psyche, existing in the collective unconscious of us all. Whilst we may struggle to integrate these aspects inside ourselves, if we are able to recognise and accept them, they can be enabling and facilitative.
“In real life, too, it takes a long time for a woman to bring the animus into consciousness, and it costs her a great deal of suffering. But if she succeeds in freeing herself from her possession, he changes into an “inner companion” of the highest value, who confers on her positive masculine qualities such as initiative, courage, objectivity, and intellectual clarity.”
Marie-Louise von Franz
Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche, p. 282
For more about the struggle with the animus in women, follow this link.
“The Anima is a personification of all feminine tendencies, be them positive or negative, that exist within a man’s psyche. Sensitivity, empathy, a capacity for loving relationships and a feeling for nature are all considered positive expressions of the anima. However, a repression of the anima can cause it to become deformed, leading to characteristics such as moodiness, sentimentality, hysteria and possessiveness. In short, what had the potential to be positive expressions are transformed into negative qualities.”
To understand more about the concept of the anima in men, follow this link.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, these archetypes can be criticised for being outdated, stereotyped and reductionist, especially in relation to issues like gender identity.
Of course, the historical context in which Jung was working is reflected in his theories; more research and thought continue to be applied in terms of reframing concepts like the animus and anima, in order to make them more relevant to contemporary concepts of gender identity.
- The Self
Mandala made by a Jung’s unknown patient before 1929. From Mystery of the Golden Flower by Carl Jung. Wikimedia Commons
“A mandala is the psychological expression of the totality of the self.”
Carl Jung
Jung’s self archetype represents the therapeutic journey towards wholeness, and towards integrating the various parts of the psyche into a harmonious ‘totality.’ This is a process he called individuation; this is about change, self-awareness and becoming our authentic selves. It is often represented by the symbol of the mandala.
Dreams about heroes, kings and queens or rescuers can reflect the process of discovering the self.
And finally…a reflection on Jung’s considerable contribution to our spirituality and our ways of thinking:
Carl Jung. c 1935. Wikimedia Commons
“There may still be people who think of Carl Gustav Jung only as a distinguished psychiatrist who enlarged our understanding of the mind and who also made important contributions to psychotherapy. He did both, but his variety of analysis is not simply concerned with the relief of neurotic symptoms; it promises a secular form of salvation. Jung was a spiritual teacher as well as a physician.”
Anthony Storr
© Linda Berman.
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