Carl Jung

Carl Jung was a famous Swiss dream interpreter who lived from 1875 to 1961. Originally a follower of Sigmund Freud’s dream ideas, Jung broke away from Freud in 1912 following years of differing views of the nature of dreams. However, Jung’s five years with Freud did inspire many of the same ideas from both these famous dream interpreters. Similar to Freud’s idea, Jung believed that dreams were definite images in our unconscious which told of things that were being ignored, suppressed, or simply not in use during our waking hours. Jung believed that these unknowns wanted recognition in our conscience. The dreams themselves are honest and accurate meant for the dreamer to acknowledge. Jung differed here in Freud’s theory as Freud thought of dreams as very concealing while Jung saw dreams as very revealing.

The year Jung broke away from Freud was also the year that Jung published his book, Psychology of the Unconscious. In his book, Jung discusses the deep layers in our unconscious that different people had in common. These thoughts were of basic events in the course of a lifetime including birth, individualism, the struggle with good and evil, and so on. Our unconscious, therefore, is an archetype that has been inherited from the beginnings of man. The images in our dreams many times have much in common with images of creation, paradise, myths, folklore, and superstition. Those images are mental patterns shared either by members of a culture or universally by all human beings.

In 1921, Psychological Types was written discussing Jung’s theory that challenged all persons to reach harmony with the unconscious and conscious. To do this, a person should work hard to access their dreams, and find the messages in a dream that are meant to be understood.