Jungian theory of dreaming and contemporary dream research – findings from the research project ‘Structural Dream Analysis’

Abstract

The research method 'Structural Dream Analysis' (SDA) is described which allows for systematic and objective analysis of the meaning of dreams produced by patients in Jungian psychotherapies. The method focuses especially on the relationship between the dream ego and other figures in the dream and the extent of activity of the dream ego. Five major dream patterns were identified which accounted for the majority of the dreams. The clients' dream series were dominated by one or two repetitive patterns which were closely connected to the psychological problems of the dreamers. Additionally, typical changes in the dream series' patterns could be identified which corresponded with therapeutic change. These findings support Jung's theory of dreams as providing a holistic image of the dreamer's psyche, including unconscious aspects. The implications for different psychoanalytic theories of dreaming and dream interpretation are discussed as well as implications for the continuity hypothesis.To provide empirical support for analytical psychology's main concepts is difficult in some fields, namely archetype theory, but regarding Jung's theory of dreaming there is a surprisingly large amount of support coming from empirical dream research. I have been investigating the connection between dreams and the course of psychotherapy in Jungian analysis, and I have found that there is strong empirical support for our Jungian perspective on the role of dreams.We know that Freud's and Jung's perspectives differ in many aspects, and so they do regarding dreaming and dream interpretation. Whereas Freud (1900) was convinced that dreaming serves the function of protecting sleep by distorting the unconscious meaning of the dream, Jung saw the dream as a total picture of the current situation of the psyche including unconscious aspects; later he added that the dream compensates the attitude of ego consciousness. So in a certain sense Freud sees the dream as covering itsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…In this sense, clinicians may use their patients' dreams as supervision to guide the therapy. Roesler (2018Roesler ( , 2020, following Jung's idea that dreams are better interpreted as representations of subjective elements of the dreamer's personality, created an interpretative method called Structural Dream Analysis, in which the meaning of dreams is investigated not in certain symbols but more in the relationship between the elements, in order to understand patterns of connections between the dreamer ego and other figures. Finally, with respect to cognitive therapy, a well-validated model for dream work is Hill's cognitiveexperiential framework for dream interpretation (Hill & Rochlen, 2002), which proposes a three-stage approach (exploration, insight, action) to interpreting patients' dreams during a therapy session.…”

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“…Generally, the psyche spontaneously creates symbolic images in its ongoing efforts to depict the meaning of a subject’s current life situation, as is seen in dreaming, mental wandering, or undirected visions (Goodwyn 2018; Malinowski & Horton 2015; Lakoff 1997; Pace‐Schott 2013; Roesler 2020; Wamsley 2014). It does this by taking memories, breaking them up, and then re‐organizing them into imaginary symbolic narratives, especially in dreams.…”

Historico-philosophical interpretation of the archetypes of personality as symbolic images of the collective unconscious in the receptive field of psychoanalytic views of Сarl Gustav Jung

“…summa summarum) и являются общими для культур разных народов мира; (6) выявлено, что трансцендентная функция -это связующее звено между сознательной и бессознательной структурой, которая при их столкновении способна «безболезненно» нейтрализовать последствия внутреннего конфликта. : личность, архетип, cамость, коллективное бессознательное, миф, символ, сновидения, трансцендентная функция, принцип синхроничности, когерентность, индивидуация (Goodwyn, 2020); німецького вченого Кристіана Рослера (Roesler, 2020) і американських юнґіанських аналітиків -Мюррея Стайна (Stein, 2019; і Джеймса Холліса (Hollis, 2020).…”