Pioneers of Dream Analysis
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
"Dreaming is a peculiar
form of thinking
made possible by the
conditions of sleep."
During the late nineteenth century, Signmund Freud observed Josef Breuer using hypnosis and suggestibility to treat patients with physical symptoms that did not have a biological basis. Breuer used hypnosis to induce or remove a physical response. Freud was intrigued by the idea that the unconscious could hold enormous power over the body.
Freud formulated the idea of psychosomatic symptoms, which could originate through the energy of mental processes being withheld from conscious awareness. He observed that when a conflict or difficult idea was repressed or left unresolved, energy could be diverted into bodily symptoms.
These symptoms gave the patient a 'time out'
until the issue could be resolved.
The work of Breuer inspired Freud’s idea of the unconscious, leading to his pioneering work in psychoanalysis. By studying dreams as the messenger of this unconscious information, he began to explore the repressed inner life of his patients.
Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were fascinated by the unconscious, and worked together for a time. Bitterness developed over their interpretations of the meaning of dreams and the contents of the unconscious.
The neuroses that Freud observed in himself and his siblings led him at one time, to question whether his father may have committed incest. Later, he would reverse this view to consider the harbored desires of the infant, leading to his concept of the Oedipal stage of childhood.
Freud's interpretation of dreams classified many aspects as being of the past, primarily sexual, and portraying repressed fantasies. He described dreaming as "a peculiar form of thinking made possible by the conditions of sleep." Dreaming allowed one to process repressed ideas, which grew because of "a shadow falling over the ego." Since these aspects could not find authentic expression they were projected as coming from out there.
Freud believed that dreams only appeared cryptic
as a way of getting transformative ideas beyond
the walls of one's consciousness and defense mechanisms.
Carl Jung had a vivid imagination, remarkable dreams and experienced powerful inspiration, much of which was contrary to the ideas of his clerical father's religion. In light of his father’s failing beliefs, he tried to communicate his inspired visions but was misunderstood. His dreams were filled with transformative ideas and to Jung, the dreamscape was a place of the future and the exploration and the unleashing of potential.
The conflict that arose in the relationship between
Freud and Jung portrays how all that we reject can be
projected in shadow form as the face of our enemy.
Each explored in the other, an attraction and repulsion dynamic of what they had rejected in themselves. Where Freud projected his sexual frustration into his interpretations, Jung came to project his strong need for spiritual freedom. In their encounter, Freud would have been threatened by Jung’s sense of freedom and wholeness, while Jung would have bristled at the idea of such a limited system of interpretation being focused on only sexual ideas.
Respecting both of their beliefs, we can trace the thread that ties their ideas together. Some part of the mind seems to have a sense of the future, or what is required for transformation. At the same time, it is actively seeking to process what is repressed. These pioneers acted as ballast for each other where their individual differences allowed them to access and reveal even greater insights.
Freud described spirituality as the sublimation of man's repressed animal instincts, and described the devil as nothing more than this repressed and projected instinctual life. One experienced evil out there because something was disowned in here. Jung on the other hand, was highly influenced by his Christian beliefs.
After their break, both deliberately explored their dreams and fantasies. Working with with many patients, Jung concluded that we are all inspired by what he termed the collective unconscious. In Jung’s view, the obscure and neglected texts of ancient myths shed light upon dream symbolism. By analyzing thousands of dreams, similar symbols emerged from the dreams of different patients.
These were ancient images of which, the dreamer
had no prior knowledge and suggested
an inherent and shared source of primordial inspiration.
He later helped clients to identify their personal myths through dreamwork. (For more information on universal archetypes see: The Mythology of Sleep: The Waking Power of Dreams)
While Freud and Jung shared an equal fascination for the unconscious, there interpretation of how and why it processes information were very different. The Dream Dictionary within this site draws upon the ideas of both.
(>>Dream Dictionary)
