Carl Gustav Jung was born in 1875 and he believed that dreams happened in the unconscious mind. He did not feel that the mind was sexual but more spiritual. Jung thought that Freud had weird ideas on dreams.
Jung believed that dreams would help you communicate with yourself and your unconscious mind and that even if you are trying to hide your feelings when you are awake that you would know what you were really feeling by your dreams.
He believed that dreams help you to figure out how to be whole and to solve problems that you have while you are awake. Jung believed that your ego would help you understand your part in the world.
Jung thought that things could be paired in opposites such as women and men, good and evil, love and hate. He thought that your mind worked against the ego and called it the counter ego. He also called it the shadow self. The shadow was there so that you could reject parts of yourself that you did not want to face. He believed that the shadow was the primitive part of yourself and was considered strange and awkward.
Dream Interpretation
Jung believed that dreams were a way that you could communicate with your mind. He believed that images would reveal who you were and how you viewed other people. He felt that dreams could help to guide you and help you to grow to who you were meant to be.
Jung believed that dreams were there so that you could understand your life. By talking about your life and what is happening, Jung believed that you could interpret your dream images and that you could be more confident when you dreamed.
Jung believed that everyone dreams as a tool so that they can interpret what they are dreaming and there is no real way to interpret dreams. He believes that your dreams are a judgement of yourself and you interpret them the way that you feel is right and important. He doesn’t believe that what other people think matters.
- Archetypes
Jung believed that some dream symbols had the same meaning for men and women. He called these “collective unconscious.” He believed that your dreams are personal but some of the symbols and themes worked for everyone and that they worked the same in all cultures.
Jung identified there to be seven different characters that were collective for everyone including: Persona, shadow, animal, divine child, wise old man, great mother and the truckers.
- Persona
The persona is when you are awake, and you are in the public. He believes you put on a mask but when you dream you are your real self. The self may not look like who you are or act like how you would act. An example would be that you might come as a poor person in your dream and even though he or she doesn’t look like you, that person represents you.
- Shadow
This part of your dreams represents yourself. It is the part of you that you don’t want the world to see because it seems ugly or gross. This is the part of you that is weak and angry.
When you dream, this person comes as a murderer or a stalker and it is really you. This person can be a scary figure or someone that is a friend or a relative. When you see them in your dream you might get scared and you will need to accept the images as who you are so that you can understand them.
- Anima/Animus
This is the male and female part of who you are. Everyone has both of these qualities and when you dream, it can be a feminized figure while the animus comes as a masculine form. You might dream that you are a man dressed as a woman or that you are a woman that grows a beard.
The dream images can come depending on the qualities that you have in yourself and they help to remind you that you can express your sensitive or masculine side.
- Divine Child
This is who you are in your purest form and is your innocence. You might feel vulnerable or that you are helpless, and this dream can leave you open to all things in life. This figure is shown as a child.
- Wise Old Man/Woman
This is a dream helper and can be a teacher, doctor, father or someone that seems to be in authority. They give you wisdom and help you to go the right direction in life.
- The Great Mother
This is the nurturer in your dream. She will come as your own mother or a grandmother or a lady figure. She will give you reassurance and sometimes will come in the form of a witch. This can mean dominance or death.
This can be rooted in the idea that a real mother gives life and can be jealous when you grow away from her.
- Trickster
The trickster is the one that plays jokes and tries not to take you too seriously. This can come as a dream when you misjudge a situation, or you take things too seriously.
The tricksters will make you feel embarrassed and sometimes will mock you or make fun of you and show what you are vulnerable in.
These kinds of dreams are called mythical dreams or grand dreams and they come when you are transitioning to something else in your life. These can leave you feeling like you learned something that was important about who you are, and they are dreams that normally stick with you for a long time.
Jung’s views on the counter ego and shadow self provide a more nuanced understanding of internal conflicts. His belief that dreams help us navigate these aspects is thought-provoking.
I find it interesting that Jung felt dreams were personal judgments and should be interpreted by the dreamer themselves. This individualized approach respects the subjective nature of our unconscious minds.
The idea that dreams act as a tool for introspection and self-discovery is quite compelling. Jung’s theory that dreams can reveal hidden parts of our personality seems very insightful.
It’s fascinating how Jung categorized dream symbols into universal archetypes that transcend cultural boundaries. These collective unconscious symbols suggest a deeper connection among all humans.
The distinctions Jung made between different archetypes like the Shadow and the Trickster are intriguing. I appreciate that he saw dreams as a means of self-communication and personal growth rather than purely sexual symbols.