Dream analysis in Jungian psychotherapy

Abstract

C. G. Jung assigned central importance to the analysis of dreams. Dreams provide indications of where development could go, enable renewed interest in life, new experience of meaning, but also indicate what may have been repressed. They regulate emotions, especially in the context of relationships, and are also centrally important for the therapeutic relationship. Jung established a link between daydreams and dreaming at night by referring to the fundamental importance of fantasy (imagination), and its close relationship to complexes, to the dysfunctional, emotional patterns of relating. He postulated that we continue to dream below the threshold of consciousness even when awake – and he related this phenomenon to unconscious complexes. This view is supported by recent neuroscientific research that postulates a continuum between daydreaming and dreaming at night, as well as a relationship to creativity, and can be seen as analogous to Jung’s understanding of imagination and dreaming. For practical work, this suggests perceiving and developing night dreams even more intensively together with imagination and the corresponding emotions, and from there to recognize and experience a new variety of connections with everyday life and current difficulties.