Product Description

In the 1930s C. G. Jung embarked upon a bold investigation into childhood dreams as remembered by adults to better understand their significance to the lives of the dreamers. Jung presented his findings in a four-year seminar series at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Children's Dreams marks their first publication in English, and fills a critical gap in Jung's collected works.

Here we witness Jung the clinician more vividly than ever before--and he is witty, impatient, sometimes authoritarian, always wise and intellectually daring, but also a teacher who, though brilliant, could be vulnerable, uncertain, and humbled by life's great mysteries. These seminars represent the most penetrating account of Jung's insights into children's dreams and the psychology of childhood. At the same time they offer the best example of group supervision by Jung, presenting his most detailed and thorough exposition of Jungian dream analysis and providing a picture of how he taught others to interpret dreams. Presented here in an inspired English translation commissioned by the Philemon Foundation, these seminars reveal Jung as an impassioned educator in dialogue with his students and developing the practice of analytical psychology.

An invaluable document of perhaps the most important psychologist of the twentieth century at work, this splendid volume is the fullest representation of Jung's views on the interpretation of children's dreams, and signals a new wave in the publication of Jung's collected works as well as a renaissance in contemporary Jung studies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120213 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 514 pages

Review
Published with the support of the Philemon Foundation, this fascinating work on children's dreams comprises texts from a four-year seminar series at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. This is the first appearance in English of these seminars, and the present volume is considered the first supplement to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. . . . Presented as an informal exchange in a conversational format, the book is overall more accessible than the concentrated presentation in Collected Works. This invaluable resource will delight scholars of Jung and anyone interested in his works.
(Bailey, Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, for "CHOICE )

Review
This is Jung on dream analysis in more detail than has yet been published. It reveals Jung as an educator in dialogue with his students in a more casual exchange than a formal lecture but one that shows more depth and spontaneity as a give-and-take exchange. A unique feature of the work is that it presents a detailed exposition of the application of archetypal psychology to the dreams of childhood as they have been remembered by adults.
(Eugene Taylor, author of "William James on Consciousness beyond the Margin" )

From the Inside Flap

"This is Jung on dream analysis in more detail than has yet been published. It reveals Jung as an educator in dialogue with his students in a more casual exchange than a formal lecture but one that shows more depth and spontaneity as a give-and-take exchange. A unique feature of the work is that it presents a detailed exposition of the application of archetypal psychology to the dreams of childhood as they have been remembered by adults."--Eugene Taylor, author of William James on Consciousness beyond the Margin

"A fascinating offering. It is always a pleasure to watch Jung go to work on a dream, and this book gives an invaluable picture of how he taught others to interpret dreams as well as how he approached them himself. Here, the clinician comes forward, and the dreams and their likely significance for the life of the dreamer remain the focus throughout."--John Beebe, editor of Aspects of the Masculine

Customer Reviews

Jung at Work
This book shows Jung at work using his methods of dream interpretation. Jung liked the seminar method and had ongoing seminars during the academic year from the early 1920's until 1940. The children's dream seminar has long been available only to close students of analytical psychology and was given between 1936 and 1940. In this seminar he takes dreams of adults who recall their dreams from childhood. So, do not expect to see dreams from children. He shows his magnificently wide range of knowledge of different subjects as he amplifies the meaning of the dreams put forth by seminar participants. The translations from German are by Ernst Falzaeder, a well known psychoanalytic historian, and are excellent. The book is the second to be published by the Philemon Foundation which is undertaking to publish all the unpublished works of C.G. Jung. HIghly recommended for anyone interested in the study of dreams and analytical psychology.

A unique perspective on an emerging Analytical Psychology
This book is a unique perspective on the dreams of children, although it must be noted that they are the dreams that adults had as they recall them from their childhood. What is unique about this book is that the introductory lectures about dreams by Carl Jung may be the single best presentation of the classical Analytical Psychology perspective of dreams. Secondly, the book is a powerful presentation of the unique contribution made by Jung. One unique contribution is the illustration of how the forces of the psyche already at play in the young child and how they contribute to the unfolding development of an individual's identity. A drawback is the case presentation method (a plus for others), which can make the material somewhat choppy because of the varied presentations. Overall, however, it is solid and unique contribution to the field of Analyical Psychology and all perspectives work from that group of psychologies under the umbrella of depth psychology.

Jung's Seminar on Children's Dreams
Children's Dreams: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936-1940 by C.G. Jung stands as an important document for anyone interested in children's dreams. The book gathers many voices, those of the seminar participants, and that of Jung, in his role as teacher.

One appeal of the book is its didactic format. The participants in the seminar present children's dreams that Jung assigned to them at the beginning of the semester, which they amplify and for which they suggest meanings. Jung listens to their presentations. In his comments following the presentations Jung often returns at first to the simple facts of the dream, and then further amplifies the dream using relevant archetypal symbols. With a remarkable breadth of knowledge at his fingertips, Jung navigates through the world of myths and symbols with great ease, unearthing their hidden meanings along the way.

In response to a reductive interpretation of a dream, Jung may expand it so as to account for the many dimensions of a dream; when working with a dream with no clear ending, he may look for the potential for development enfolded in it; and when cumbersome amplifications lead away from a dream, again and again Jung brings the focus back to the original text of the dream.

The seminar spans four winters. We can trace a development through the series, which reaches its fullest expression with the third session (1938-1939). Readers will find gems here and there in Jung's spontaneous comments throughout the notes.

Humbled by dreams, Jung confides: "We will never understand this secret of life and this cosmos, it is much too complicated, and the same is true for dreams. They fall like nuts from the tree of life and yet they are so hard to crack," (p.332).