Carl Jung Dreams
To Carl Jung, dreams represented a sort of unconscious reality. For both Freud and Jung, dreams were of the utmost importance.
Do you remember your dreams? For Carl Jung, dreams that were recorded upon waking were the ones that really held the most validity. He believed that dreams spoke of a different language, and that they should be carefully regarded. Though many try to remember their dreams, most people are largely unsuccessful in doing so. Jung thought that the collective unconscious (and archetypes with it) would try to speak during dreams, which was why he tried to recall all of his dreams throughout his lifetime.
For him, dreams were something very special. They were filled with forms that represented specific shadows, colors that reflected unconscious thought, and shapes that were direct manifestations of his archetypes. Though Jung is credited with doing a lot of dream work, the idea of paying close attention to your dreams actually comes from Ancient Greece.
Since Plato’s time, dreams have been deemed important to one’s well being. The Greeks often remembered their dreams and treated them as foreshadowing’s that directly related to life. Since we only use a small percentage of our minds, the idea that a dream may hold a lot of answers is not so farfetched. Think about it – have you ever dreamt about something you misplaced only to find it the following day? To Jung, this would have indicated your unconscious speaking with you. Within the mind of Carl Jung, dreams were no laughing matter.
Even though society has always thought very highly of their dreams, today’s world is full of those that no longer dream. Well, no longer remember their dreams, anyway. Some suggest that this fact is due to overly hectic lifestyles, but if Jung’s collective unconscious and archetypal theory were proven to be true, it may be too late for us to communicate with our own minds. As you go to sleep tonight, try and think about the things that you mind may be saying to you – what do you remember? What shapes do you see? Do any symbols pop into your mind when you recall your dreams?
As you can see, to Carl Jung, dreams truly held the answers to some of life’s stranger questions. If you had been alive during Jung’s time, you may have been asked to tell the famous psychologist about your dreams if there were particularly interesting. Today, you’ll have to settle for writing down your dreams when you awake, and trying to compare all that you see with your mind’s eye to the various theories that Jung came up with.