Carl Jung on dream

Carl G Jung

As against Freud's view that 

the dream is essentially a wish-fulfillment,

I hold that the dream is a spontaneous self-portrayal,

in symbolic form, 

of the actual situation in the unconscious.

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." 

The dream shows the inner truth and

reality of the patient as it really is:

not as I conjecture it to be,

and not as he would like it to be, but as it is.

The view that dreams are merely the imaginary fulfillments of repressed wishes is 

hopelessly out of date.

There are, it is true,

dreams which manifestly represent wishes or fears, 
but what about all the other things?

Dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, anticipations, irrational experiences,

even telepathic visions, 

and heaven knows what besides.

I leave theory aside

as much as possible

when analyzing dreams -

not entirely, of course, 

for we always need some

theory to make things intelligible.

It is on the basis of theory, for instance, 

that I expect dreams to have a meaning.

I cannot prove in every case that this is so,

for there are dreams which the doctor

and the patient simply do not understand.

But I have to make such an hypothesis in order

to find courage to deal with dreams at all.

Every interpretation is an hypothesis, 

an attempt to read an unknown text.

An obscure dream, taken in isolation, 

can hardly ever be interpreted with any certainty.

For this reason I attach little importance

to the interpretation of single dreams.

A relative degree of certainty is reached only

in the interpretation of a series of dreams,

where the later dreams correct the mistakes we

have made in handling those that went before.

Also, the basic ideas and themes can be

recognized much better in a dream-series.

Never apply any theory, 

but always ask the patient how

he feels about his dream images.

For dreams are always about a 

particular problem of the individual about

which he has a wrong conscious judgment.

The dreams are the reaction to our

conscious attitude in the same way that

the body reacts when we overeat or

do not eat enough or when we

ill-treat it in some other way.

Dreams are the natural reaction of

the self-regulating psychic system.