The Meaning of Dreams According to Jungian Psychology

From ancient times to the present day, various cultures have considered dreams as a door to a magical dimension that allows them to predict the future or communicate with spirits or other immaterial entities. Many of these beliefs continue to be part of contemporary popular culture even in the West

In the year 1900, the creator of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud published his book The Interpretation of Dreams, introducing his study within modern science no longer as a form of communication with metaphysical entities, but as the symbolic expression of the unconscious of individuals

From Freud’s pioneering research on dreams, methodologies and conceptualizations related to the interior of some psychological schools were developed, such as the individual psychology of Alfred Adler or Gestalt psychology; However, Carl Gustav Jung’s Jungian analytical psychology is probably the perspective that has placed greater emphasis on the interpretation of dreams as a fundamental part of the psychotherapeutic process. Let’s see how the topic of dreams is approached from this school.

What is the origin of dreams?

In Jungian psychology, dreams are considered products of nature; emanations of that creative force that is implicit in the conformation of cells, in the tissues of tree leaves, in our skin and in cultural and artistic expressions. They are therefore attributed an intrinsic wisdom that is expressed through symbolic images.

For the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, creator of analytical psychology, this creative force makes use of the impressions of the day before, the remains of the day and our life experiences to construct the images and stories of our dreams.

The matrix of dreams: the archetypes of the collective unconscious

According to Jung, Freud’s approach to the unconscious as a reservoir of repressed sexual desires was not sufficient to account for those contents that are not related to the personal history of individuals.

Jung realized that frequently in the delusions and hallucinations of his psychiatric patients, as well as in the dreams of people in general, themes, stories and characters emerged spontaneously that, once examined and interpreted, came to have a surprising similarity. with the mythological narratives that have accompanied humanity in different times and places. Jung argued that this similarity cannot always be attributed to a direct or indirect contact between the individual and these ideas during their daily actions, so he inferred that these stories and symbols emerge from a common creative source, which he called the collective unconscious.

The typical motifs of mythological narratives, delusions and dreams For Jung, they are symbolic expressions of universal patterns of behavior and meaning that human beings as a species inherit, which he called archetypes.

Archetypes are considered the psychic correlates of biological instincts and would function as mechanisms of self-regulation, integration and promotion of psychic development. They are also seen as containers and transmitters of wisdom common to all humanity.

Dreams as a representation of the hero archetype

The archetypal myth of the hero’s journey (humble and miraculous birth, individual called on a mission, meeting with the master, interaction with allies and adversaries, tests, fight against evil, descent into hell, finding the treasure, marriage with the princess etc.) which is found in the structure of many ancient and contemporary stories, It is considered the symbolic manifestation of the process of psychic transformation that all individuals they are driven to perform throughout their lives.

This transformation is aimed at the deployment of the unique potentials of each individual, at the experience of their most genuine personality, their vocation, their unique contribution to the world. Accompanying this transformation process, called the individuation process, is the objective of Jungian psychotherapy.

From Jungian theory, variations and fragments of the mythical narrative of the hero are represented every night in our dreams through the way in which archetypes are incarnated in individuals, that is, affective complexes.

Dreams as a personification of emotional complexes

Complexes are a set of ideas and thoughts with a strong emotional charge that are formed from personal experiences related to the theme of some archetype. The father complex, for example, is nourished by the personal and unique experiences that we have had with our own father and with other father figures, always under the background of the archetype of the universal “father”.

Always according to Jung, complexes are the constituent elements of our psyche and behave like sub-personalities that are activated in certain circumstances of the external or internal world. Thus, an emotion disproportionate to the context (jealousy, desire for power, envy, falling in love, fear of failure or success) could be an indication that we are acting under the influence of some complex, and that our interaction with reality is is mediated by it. The intensity of the activation of a complex conditions the degree of subjectivity that we project onto people and external circumstances in a given situation.

The role of complexes

Complexes have the ability to personify themselves in our dreams and according to Jung they constitute the scriptwriters, directors, actors and settings of our dream world.

While we dream, we can then talk to a wise old man represented by some professor or teacher that we admire; We confront ourselves with our shadow under the guise of some acquaintance or neighbor who we find irritating; We receive miraculous help from a silent childhood companion. The archetype of the shaman or healer can be represented by a doctor or our therapist.

We have erotic relationships with contemporary heroes or heroines. We go through obstacles, we flee from murderers, we are victims and perpetrators; we fly, we climb sacred mountains; We get lost in labyrinths, our house is destroyed in an earthquake, we survive floods, we die and sometimes we are also reborn with another body; We return again and again to the university or school to take an exam on some subject that we have left pending. All experiences as real as waking life.

It is then considered that in Most of the time, the characters and situations in our dreams represent aspects of ourselves. that need to be integrated and recognized.

A constant journey

From Jungian psychology, dreams are the dramatization of our journey to the depths, in search of our treasure, our most genuine being. It is in a series of dreams, rather than in an isolated dream, where the different stages of said journey are shown.

Besides, Jung realized that the process of psychic transformation, in addition to being expressed in the myth of the hero, also had correspondences in the descriptions of alchemical transformation whose images sometimes also emerged spontaneously in dreams.

What are dreams for?

According to Jung’s ideas, Dreams allow us to access the symbolic and deep meaning of our life experiences They would be a symbol, in the sense of reunion, of bridge, with the singular needs of the psyche, and that is why Jung believed that they transmit possible paths of action in the face of the questions that have accompanied humanity since its beginnings.

In Jungian psychology, therapeutic work with dreams is presented as a tool that helps in the identification of our complexes and their gradual awareness. From this current it is believed that working with dreams helps to recognize patterns of behavior and relationships that may be problematic.

How do dreams work?

For Jungian psychology, the psyche functions as a self-regulated system with a tendency towards the balance of opposing elements (conscious-unconscious, light-dark, feminine-masculine) in increasingly complex and integrated states. Dreams, like any other expression of the unconscious, such as symptoms, would have a purpose and a function within said process of integration and psychic evolution

Taking into account the above, Jungian psychology does not focus on the origin of dreams, for example some repressed desire, but on their purpose. That is, it questions what a certain dream seeks to influence in relation to the psychic development of people.

archetypal dreams

Dreams whose archetypal images are more evident and for which it is difficult to find personal associations were called by Jung as great dreams. According to his ideas, great dreams or archetypal dreams usually precede life circumstances that imply great qualitative transformations such as adolescence, maturity, marriage, a serious illness or death.

Archetypal dreams can sometimes be more related to collective phenomena than with the subjective life of people.

How are dreams interpreted?

A characteristic of dreams is that they seem confusing and irrational to us However, for Jungian psychology, dreams do not disguise, veil or censor the contents they transmit, as Freudian psychoanalysis considers, but rather they express deep, complex and paradoxical knowledge that is elusive to a rational approach through metaphors, analogies. and correspondences of their images.

Because it is expressed through symbolic language, its translation or interpretation is necessary. Jung considered that dreams fulfill their function even if we do not remember or understand them, but that their study and interpretation increases and accelerates their effectiveness.

Beyond the literal

The interpretation of dreams implies an opening to symbolic consciousness, also called poetics, which enables access to the deep dimension of events, both of the internal and external world, beyond their literality. This idea is maintained throughout the phases of dream interpretation described below.

The contextualization

Taking into account that the unconscious is considered a compensating factor for our conscious attitudes, The first step to interpret a dream from Jungian psychology is contextualization which consists of investigating the conscious thoughts, values ​​and feelings of the dreamer with respect to topics related to the dream.

The associations

Subsequently We proceed to identify the meanings and personal associations that evoke in the dreamer the images of his dream.

The fact that the images in a dream have an individual meaning according to the personal history of each person is reason for From the Jungian perspective, the use of dream meaning dictionaries is discouraged

Although there are typical reasons for dreams, these must be approached from the particular context of each individual. The schematized meanings, instead of expanding the comprehensive view, tend to limit it and literalize it, which is quite toxic.

The amplification

The contextualization and identification of personal meanings lays the foundation for choosing symbolic material from mythology, folklore and art that can be conducive to amplifying the meaning of the dream.

The amplification consists of turn to images of universal symbology related to sleep providing meanings that expand the comprehensive framework of our personal dramas and that provide possible paths of action based on human experience accumulated over thousands of years.

A synthesis

Subsequently, an attempt is made to make a synthesis of the multiple meanings that have emerged during the process. Taking into account the polysemic nature of dreams, the interpretations They are provided as tentative hypotheses that can be more or less confirmed through a series of dreams

The role of the therapist

In addition to using knowledge in mythology, folklore, comparative religions and people’s psychology, Jung considered that to properly interpret dreams, The analysts had to undergo a didactic analysis so that their own complexes did not interfere with the interpretations of his patients’ dreams. The interpretation of dreams is an activity that is carried out jointly between the analyst and the patient and only makes sense within the framework of said interaction.

In the early stages of a Jungian analysis, the therapist usually has a more active role in said activity, but it is expected that openness and permeability towards the contents of the unconscious will be one of the learnings that patients develop throughout the analysis. The symbolic perspective that allows us to understand the messages of our dreams is then considered a resource that patients can count on once the psychotherapeutic process is completed.