Product Description

Extracted from Volumes 4, 8, 12, and 16. Includes "The Analysis of Dreams," 'On the Significance of Number Dreams," "General Aspects of Dream Psychology," "On the Nature of Dreams," "Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy," and "The Practical Use of Dream-Analysis."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20289 in Books
• Published on: 1974-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Review
'Not the least of Jung's services to his time was his demonstration of how the dreaming process in man, far from being archaic and redundant, was more relevant than ever.' - Laurens van der Post

Language Notes
Text: English, French, German (translation)

Customer Reviews

Dreams not only as wish fulfilment
Carl Jung says he has analysed more than 2.000 dreams per year, a very impressive number by anyone's standards. In his Dreams book, which a very good collection of many of his dreams experiments, he is after demolishing some Freudian's dreams concepts, mainly the one which asserts that the purpose of dreams is to fulfill infantile sexual wishes repressed in the unconscious, which don't find adequate outlet trough conscious activities.
To add content to this dispute, one has only to have in mind that Jung was a very ardent disciple of Freud in the beginning of his career, but the relationship turned sour after 1914 in the figthing for prestige at the foundation of the Psychanalisys in the beginning of the 20th century.
In Jung's view, dreams are not only wish fulfillers, but they are also compensatory vis-a-vis our daily conscious life. So, the purpose of them is to balance our conscious and unconscious life. So, if life is good, dreams are bad and vice-versa. At the end of his life, Jung said in one of his testimonials that by means of a very representative dream he closed a circle, which meant he got a balanced mental life between unconscious and consciousness.

Also, dreams should be taken not as isolated entities, but rather as a series of concatenated manifestations of the unconscious, something which could be represented by the ancient mandalas (Sanscrit for circle) of many peoples from the ancient world (mayas, hindus, polinesians, etc...), where the ultimate end is to attain a balance mind. Jung's theory of the unconscious is, in my opinion, pretty much more attractive than Freud's, specially in what it regards the timelessness of the unconscious and the unconscious collective.

Reading "Dreams" after reading Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" is a magnificient experience and the winner is surely the reader, who gets the most of two of the most proeminent and polemical psychanalysts of all times.

Not only in dreams
About God, Jung said, I don't believe, I know.

As soon as you read 'Dreams', you will have a complete sense of his amazing insights, not only on the subject matter, but on the complete human pysche. And this includes, as I tried to hint at from the very beginning, the very meaning of our existence.

Perhaps there would not be a Jung today, if there had not been a Freud preceding him. But a completely ignorant educated man here says, having read them both, that Jung's proposal is far more clever, ellaborate, comprehensive and convincing.

Jung was a unique scholar, he had a very distinctive ability to blend a lot of knowledge from seemingly unrelated areas of science into pyschology. His biography is an essential starting point to understand how he managed to develop this quality, which I think was key to his original thinking.

'Dreams' is a book of rare brilliance. Thanks to Jung, for providing a 'basis' for all things.

challenging, rewarding, mind- opening.
I'm fairly new to Jung but also quite hooked. This was my first read after working my way through the Viking Portable Jung (which has overlapping material), and I will continue, without question, working my way through his writings (his Collected Works, volumes 6 and 9a will be my next forays). Don't be mistaken into thinking this is any sort of manual of dream interpretation --in fact Jung seems to think that you couldn't do it on your own without at least some training by someone more experienced like an analyst, and a decent knowledge of world mythology. That said, it will be a worthwhile read for any one who is dedicated to thinking about dreams in relation to the self --with the humility of an open mind. Jung's work, or what little I've read, seems to have the capacity to pry one's mind wide open (assuming one is ready --I know I wouldn't have been 5 or 10 years ago, as a graduate student in philosophy at a very analytic program). Do Keep in mind that Jung is not an easy read --especially the wandering and discursive character of his work in alchemical symbols, but it has been, without question, rewarding for me, at least. The more I read of this guy, the more I want to.