Now let us consider Carl Jung’s Dream Theory. Jung was mentored by Freud and they agreed on many of the primary concepts of the unconscious. However, they parted ways largely over a disagreement concerning the understanding of the purposes of the unconscious mind, especially as it relates to dreaming. Whereas Freud looked backwards into a person’s life for understanding Jung’s theory looked forward into ways the unconscious ,helps us to maintain balance and equilibrium in our personality. Dreams he thought were not hiding things from us. Rather they are trying to tell us something that will help us. He thought of this as a compensatory task. If we are too puffed up they may send a message for us to be more realistic about ourselves. If we are too negative they may be encouraging. He also thought dreams could help us solve problems and make discoveries. BEDGURU lists some examples on his website. Another significant idea that had Jung differ from Freud was what he called The Collective Unconscious. He discovered this concept through his interest in mythology, alchemy, and cross culture exploration. In his clinical practice he saw that the drawings of patients were very similar to works of art from cultures unknown own to the patients. There are he decided many archetypes, and archetypical stories that can influence appear in our dreams and influence our behavior. For example, the hero’s quest and stories like St. George and the Dragon. The archetypal themes are unconscious patterns of meaning and wisdom. They help us proceed to a balanced psychological state of wholeness he termed individuation. He didn’t think all dreams were of equal value. Many could be as simple as a review of the current day that. Ake no great impression upon us. On the other hand there are what he called Dreams the we. At remember for a life time as a source of inspiration and direction for the fulfillment of goals. For example, in my personal experience following a religious conversion I dreamed of becoming a priest. It has indeed directed my life as I am nearing the 45th anniversary of my ordination. My introduction to Jung’s theory actually came in a seminary class called Awareness, Relatedness, Wholeness. We were assigned his book Memories,Dreams , and Reflections. Later a retired priest gave me is complete hard bound set of The Collected Works of Carl Jung. I still treasure the. I have also followed other Jungian authors like Morton Kelsey and John Sandford. Both have written books about dreams. Another “discovery” of Jung is called synchronicity. This is when things in the real world seem to connect with things in our unconscious. For example, I once dreamed of a a road grater although i had not seen one in a long time. The very next morning I saw one. At the time it didn’t seem important. However, not long after we purchased land In Arkansas that is on a dirt road. It is grated once or twice a year and we see these machines often! Another derivative of Jung’s work is personality type theory. I learned about this in a two week course, The School of Pastoral Care, dev,oped by Agnes Sanford and lead by Morton Kelsey. All this lead to my interest in the Myers Type Indicator (MBTI). Which in turn lead me to my Doctoral thesis, Personality as a Road May to Spirituality and thus to this website! I guess that having read this far you have already an interest in dreams and recognize their importance in your life. It would be helpful to me if you would share some of your thoughts and dream experience in the comment section. Thank you
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