A Jungian approach to Dreams

 One of the “big three” in the field of pschoanalysis  Freud’s protégée  Freud’s nightmare  Jung broke away from Freud due to differing opinions regarding certain theoretical outlooks, including dream theory.

 Freud  It’s not the journey, it’s the destination.  Purpose of dreams is to get to the dream- wish, which is obscured by the dream.  Jung  It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.  Purpose of dreams is to reach individuation, which is helped along by the dream.

 Self: The entirety of a person, including their conscious an unconscious parts.  Persona: Piece of the self. A certain personality that you adapt dependent on you situation. (How you act in a job interview vs. how you act with your friends.)  Shadow: Piece of the self. Made up of qualities you prefer to hide from the world because they are undeveloped and awkward.  Ego: The “hub” of one’s conscious personality. Connects everything together. (Think the version of yourself you are most comfortable in.)

 Individuation: The process by which a person becomes a whole, undivided, unique personality. Total integration of Self (personas, shadow, ego).

 Why the conflict?  Freud believed that the unconscious skews our dreams so that we cannot reach the truth.  Jung believes that “They employ no artifices in order to conceal something, but inform us of their content as plainly as possible in their own way.”  I.e. Dreams try to help us reach the truth.

 As a result of their perspectives just described, Freud believed that the level beneath the manifest content, the latent content, had the answer.  Jung, conversely, believed that the manifest content had the answer.  i.e. For Jung the manifest and the latent content are one in the same.

 Freud believed at the center of the dream was a distinct, individual dream-wish fueling the dream-work.  Jung believed that everyone was attempting to reach individuation through dreams, but their process of doing so was uniquely their own.

 Structure of a Jungian Dream:  Exposition  Place, characters, time, etc.  Development  Progression of the plot of the dream  Culmination  The decisive moment, a change occurs  Lysis  Resolution NOTE: Dream may be fragmented: Not all parts may be accounted for.

 Take out your dreams you have been working with and identify each of these 4 pieces within your dream.  Exposition  Development  Culmination  Lysis/Resolution

 Next step:  After you have identified each (present) component of the dream’s structure, Amplify each part.  Amplify: Filling in the manifest content with “stuff” necessary to make it make sense.

INDIVIDUALARCHETYPAL  Personal connections, feelings, thoughts, interpretations.  Using your own logic.  Using your own life.  Connections to “big” ideas.  Religion, mythology, clichés, common storylines, etc.

 Tie it in to the process of individuation.  Evaluate whether the dreamer has become closer to or farther from the process of individuation based on the amplifications and implications of the dream.  Consider both the manifest content of the dream and the added amplification content as equally important.

 Why or Why Not?  What parts of their Self (Ego, Personas, Shadow) are they now more in tune with or less in tune with? How does the evidence (manifest content and amplification content) support this?

 Once more, take out your dream you have been working with.  Now do a Jungian reading. Identify:  Exposition  Development  Culmination  Lysis  And include one individual amplification and archetypal amplification for each.  Decide whether you ended up closer to or further from the idea of individuation. Support your answer!