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hopelessly out of date.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.

Carl Jung Quotes II

Carl G Jung

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.

The doctor is only effective when he himself is affected.
Only the wounded physician heals.

It all depends on how we look at things,

and not how they are in themselves.

Every form of addiction is bad,

no matter whether the narcotic
be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

We should know what our convictions are,
and stand for them.

Upon one's own philosophy,
conscious or unconscious,

depends one's ultimate interpretation of facts.

Therefore it is wise to be
as clear as possible about one's subjective principles.

As the man is, so will be his ultimate truth.

Loneliness does not come from having no people about one,
but from being unable to communicate
the things that seems important to oneself,
or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

Jung's View Of His Own Work

Carl G Jung

Source: The Wisdom of Carl Jung

Anyone who says that I am a mystic is just an idiot.
He just doesn't understand the first word of psychology.

I do not feel called upon to found a religion,
nor to proclaim my belief in one.
I am not engaged in philosophy,
but merely in thinking within the framework of 
the special task that is laid upon me:
to be a proper psychiatrist,
a healer of the soul.

I cannot force people to take my work seriously,
and I cannot persuade them to study it really.
The trouble is that I don't
construct theories one can learn by heart.
I collect facts which are not
yet generally known or properly appreciated,
and I gave names to observations
and experiences unfamiliar to the contemporary mind
and objectionable to its prejudices.

For your orientation,
I am a psychiatrist and not a philosopher:
merely an empiricist who ponders on certain experiences.

Being a scientist,
I prefer not to be a prophet if I can help it.

If the whole world disagrees with me,
it is perfectly indifferent to me.

I cannot say I have a Freudian psychology because 
I never had such difficulties in relation to desires...
To talk of an incest complex just bores me to tears.

Religions, Myths and Philosophy

Carl G Jung

Source: The Wisdom of Carl Jung

I always think of psychology as
encompassing the whole of the psyche,
and that includes philosophy and theology and 
many other things besides.
For underlying all philosophies and 
all religions are the facts of the human soul,
which may ultimately be the arbiters of truths and errors.

Every theologian speaks simply of "God,"
by which he intends it to be understood that his "god" is the God.

So long as religion is only faith and outward form,
and the religious function is not experienced in our own souls,
nothing of any importance has happened.

We are, surely, the rightful heirs of Christian symbolism,
but somehow we have squandered this heritage.
We have let the house of our fathers built fall into decay,
and now we try to break into
Oriental palaces that our fathers never knew.

Everything has its history,
everything has "grown," and Christianity,
which is supposed to have appeared suddenly 
as a unique revelation from heaven,
undoubtedly also has its history.

We Europeans are not the only people on earth.
We are just a peninsula of Asia,
and on that continent there are old civilizations where
people have trained their minds in 
introspective psychology for thousands of years,
whereas we began our psychology not
even yesterday but only this morning.

What are religions?
Religions are psychotherapeutic systems.
What are we doing, we psychotherapists?
We are trying to heal the suffering of the human mind,
of the human psyche or the human soul,
and religions deal with the same problem.

The Art of Psychotherapy

Carl G Jung

Source: The Wisdom of Carl Jung

A person entrusted with the care of souls ought to have 

a certain wisdom of life which does not consist of words only, 
but chiefly of experience.

The greatest mistake an analyst can make is to assume that
his patient has a psychology similar to his own.

We cannot demand of our patients a faith which
they do reject because they do not understand it, 
or which does not suit them 
even though we may hold it ourselves.

First of all, one has to accept and to take seriously into account
the existence of the shadow.

Anybody whose calling it is to guide souls 
should have his own soul guided first,
so that he knows what it means to deal with the human soul.

It is of course, 
essential for the psychotherapist to have 
a fair knowledge of himself,
for anyone who does not understand himself 
cannot understand others and
can never be psychotherapeutically effective unless 
he has first treated himself with the same medicine.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for
dealing with the darkness of the other people.

For psychotherapy to be effective, 
a close rapport is needed,
so close that the doctor cannot shut his eyes
to the heights and depths of human suffering.

When I am treating a man,
I must be exceedingly careful not to knock
him down with my views or my personality,
because he has to fight his lonely fight through life and
he must be able to trust in his very incomplete armor and
in his own perhaps very imperfect aim.

Carl Jung Quotes

Carl G Jung

The word "belief" is a difficult thing for me.

I don't believe.
I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis.

Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth,

and if a man does not know what a thing is,

it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.



Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness,

and the word happy would lose its meaning 
if it were not balanced by sadness.

It is far better take things as 
they come along with patience and equanimity.
Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal

which robs the second half of life of its purpose.

A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. 

As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.