Dream Interpretation Freud and Jung
Carl Jung about Dream Interpretation
Several quotes about dream interpretation method follow. More quotes will be available soon so please sign with our newsletter (see the bottom). -- 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. Indeed, it ought not to matter to me whether the result of
my musings on the dream is scientifically verifiable or tenable, otherwise I am pursuing an ulterior-and therefore autoerotic-aim. I must content myself wholly with the fact that the result means something to the patient and sets
his life in motion again. I may allow myself only one criterion for the result of my labours: does it work? As for my scientific hobby-my desire to know why it works-this I must reserve for my spare time. From:
The Aims of Psychotherapy (1931). In CW 16: The Practice of Psychotherapy. A dream, like every element in the psychic structure, is a product of the total psyche. Hence we may expect to find in dreams
everything that has ever been of significance in the life of humanity. just as human life is not limited to this or that fundamental instinct, but builds itself up from a multiplicity of instincts, needs, desires, and physical and
psychic conditions, etc., so the dream cannot be explained by this or that element in it,'however beguilingly simple such an explanation may appear to be. We can be certain that it is incorrect, because no simple theory of instinct
will ever be capable of grasping the human psyche, that mighty and mysterious thing, nor, consequently, its exponent, the dream. In order to do anything like justice to dreams, we need an interpretive equipment that must be
laboriously fitted together from all branches of the humane sciences. From: General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1916). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Though dreams contribute to
the self-regulation of the psyche by automatically bringing up everything that is repressed or neglected or unknown, their compensatory significance is often not immediately apparent because we still have only a very incomplete
knowledge of the nature and the needs of the human psyche. There are psychological compensations that seem to be very remote from the problem on hand. In these cases one must always remember that every man, in a sense, represents
the whole of humanity and its history. What was possible in the history of mankind at large is also possible on a small scale in every individual. What mankind has needed may eventually be needed by the individual too. It is
therefore not surprising that religious compensations play a great role in dreams. That this is increasingly so in our time is a natural consequence of the prevailing materialism of our outlook. --
Quotes from
General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1916). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche.
Copyright 2016, Dreamsfreudjung.net. All rights reserved
