Carl
G. Jung, the great founder of analytical psychology and an NDEr,
was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation is large, reflecting
the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal
and collective. Jung believed that
archetypes manifest themselves in dreams as dream symbols. Such
symbols could take the form of an old man, a young maiden or a giant
spider for example. Each symbol represents an unconscious attitude
that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Jung cautioned
against blindly ascribing meaning to dream symbols without a clear
understanding of the client's personal situation. He described two
approaches to dream symbols: the causal approach and the final approach.
In the causal approach, the symbol is reduced to certain fundamental
tendencies. Thus, a giant spider may symbolize particular fear,
or falling in to a trap . In the final approach, the dream interpreter
asks, "Why this symbol and not another?" Thus, a giant spider representing
a particular fear could represent the dreamer's fearful, subjective
emotion about a personal situation. Or a giant spider could represent
the dreamer is falling into a trap as an objective situation. The
final approach will tell you additional things about the dreamer's
attitudes and give the dream a more approximate interpretation.
Technically, Jung recommended stripping the dream of its details
and presenting the gist of the dream to the dreamer. This process
is equivalent to thinking of the dream as a newspaper article and
writing a headline for it. Jung stressed that a dream is not merely
a devious puzzle invented by the unconscious to be deciphered, so
that the true causal factors behind it may be elicited. Dreams are
not to serve as lie detectors, with which to reveal the insincerity
behind conscious thought processes. Dreams, like the unconscious,
had their own language. As representations of the unconscious, dream
images have their own primacy and mechanics. As such, Jung believed
that dreams may contain inescapable truths, philosophical pronouncements,
illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, irrational experiences
and even telepathic visions. Just as the psyche has a daily side
which we experience as conscious life, it has an unconscious nocturnal
side which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. Jung would argue that
just as we do not doubt the importance of our conscious experience,
then we ought not to second guess the value of our unconscious lives.
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