Symbols in an analysis

The beginning of the analysis

There is a widespread belief that the methods of Jungian psychology are applicable only to middle-aged people. True, many men and women reach middle age without achieving psychological maturity, and its is therefore necessary to help them through the neglected phases of their development. They have not completed the first part of the process of individuation that Dr. M.-L. Von Franz has described. But it is also true that a young person can encounter serious problems as he grows up. If a young person is afraid of life and finds it hard to adjust to reality, he might prefer to dwell in his fantasies or to remain a child. In such a young person (especially if he is introverted) one can sometimes discover unexpected treasures in the unconscious, and by bringing them into consciousness strengthen his ego and give him the psychic energy he needs to grow into a mature person. That is the function of the powerful symbolism of our dreams.

Dr. Jung assigned great importance to the first dream in an analysis, for, according to him, it often has anticipatory value. A decision to go into analysis is usually accompanied nu an emotional upheaval that disturbs the deep psychic levels from which archetypal symbols arise. The first dreams therefore often present “collective images” that provide a perspective for the analysis as a whole and can give the therapist insight into the dreamer's psychic conflicts.

People who rely totally on their rational thinking and dismiss or repass every manifestation of their psychic life often have an almost inexplicable inclination to superstition. They listen to oracles and prophecies and can be easily hoodwinked or influenced by magicians and conjurers. And because dreams compensate one's other life, the emphasis such people put in their intellect is offset by dreams in which they meet the irrational and cannot escape it.

One immediately notices the singularity and the exceptional meaning of the dream, its wealth of symbols, and its compactness.

C.G. Jung and some of his associates have tried to make clear the role played by the symbol-creating function in man's unconscious psyche and to point out some fields of application in this newly discovered area of life. We are still far from understanding the unconscious or the archetypes – those dynamic nuclei of the psyche – in all their implications. All we can see now is that the archetypes have an enormous impact on the individual, forming his emotions and his ethical and mental outlook, influencing his relationships with others, and thus affecting his whole destiny. We can also see that the arrangement of archetypal symbols follows a pattern of wholeness in the individual, and that an appropriate understanding of the symbols can have a healing effect. And we can see that the archetypes can act as creative or destructive forces in our mind: creative when they inspire new ideas, destructive when these same ideas stiffen into conscious prejudices that inhabit further discoveries. 

Jung has shown how subtle and differentiated all attempts at interpretation must be, in order not to weaken the specific individual and cultural values or archetypal ideas and symbols by leveling them out – i.e., by giving them a stereotyped, intellectually formulated meaning. Jung himself dedicated his entire life to such investigations and interpretative work. Naturally this article sketches only an infinitesmal part of his vast contribution to this new field of psychological discovery.

Dreams compensate more or less explicitly for the dreamer's conscious attitude of mind. Illustration by Elena.