Dreamwork Foundation
Introducing Jungian Approaches to Dreamwork
“What Jung understood is that each individual carries with them not just personal associations, but socio-cultural as well. When considering dreams specificity does assist in the enunciation of themes but also illuminates the cultural and social messaging the dreamer may have absorbed and these subtle signals can be amplified by the therapist because they are not always in the conscious awareness of the dreamer.”
— Vijay Ramanathan
Introduction to Required Foundational Understanding
One of the most viable practices in transpersonal therapy is to work with clients’ dreams. In order to do so, it’s important to have some understanding of the transpersonal theory that forms the foundation for Jungian dream work. There’s an acknowledgment that the psychic reality of the client, and all people, are divided into the conscious and the unconscious aspects of the mind. Carl Jung mapped out the relationship between individual awareness and collective awareness, connecting that which is below our awareness, or unconscious in each category. At the intersection of all these is dreamwork. Populations that are too literal in their viewpoints, viewing reality from a materialist or strictly separated external reality that is not informed by subjectivity, but instead informed by the illusion of objectivity, will not fare well in this treatment plan as they struggle with releasing fixed meaning to phenomena. Hall writes: “We must always be aware of the mysterious nature of dreams, which exist at the border of our understanding of brain and mind, conscious and unconscious, personal and transpersonal life” (Hall, 1983, p. 117). Navigating the often tangled terrain of these intersecting arenas is the work of the transpersonal therapist.
Dreamwork often can be a way to explore the structures of both individual and collective psyches. When the dreamer is able to allow direct communication between the psychic worlds and better understand their dreamer’s role in the larger psychic universe. This work analogously becomes a true excavation into the depths of one’s psychic lands. “The dream is a message, but it needs to be interpreted in order to be understood” (Stein, 2022, p. 69). As we move through superficial associations, we relate each dream image with the inner realities of the individual. Then only can we reach a point of relating with collective archetypes and community. This is outlined in the four-step approach of Jungian dreamwork consisting of 1. Associations 2. Inner dynamics 3. Interpretation 4. Rituals (Johnson, 1986). This entry will illustrate how this method can be used for clients by incorporating an example of dreamwork, carrying with it some practices to avoid in practicing dreamwork.
Transpersonal Framework and Perspectives
When tracking images and symbols in a dream it takes less effort to use dictionaries and guides to gather generic understandings and attempt to apply them in an interpretation. What Jung understood is that each individual carries with them not just personal associations, but socio-cultural as well. When considering dreams specificity does assist in the enunciation of themes but also illuminates the cultural and social messaging the dreamer may have absorbed and these subtle signals can be amplified by the therapist because they are not always in the conscious awareness of the dreamer. We cannot make assumptions about what these images or symbols mean to the individual or their individual communities, however, when we have a firm understanding of their personal significance to the dreamer we can then amplify their meaning using archetypal resonance.
The mistake of many dream enthusiasts is to homogenize the dream experience due to its universal qualities or skip ahead to interpret it loosely without empowering the dreamer to free-associate or establish a definite relationship with the dreamer’s life situation at the time (Hall, 1983). Before we get anywhere near a dream interpretation it’s important to allow space for context and an excavation of the layers of the Self, the core identity, digging into the persona as represented by the ego, or, more precisely the ego is represented in the dream, aka the dream-ego, and how it related to the negated or repressed opposite face of the ego, as represented by the shadow. The dream therapist can use this vocabulary to inform the client's dream of the various parts of the individual psyche as it relates to the collective human experience. This approach allows for specificity in the application of dreamwork instead of broad strokes. Since this approach is heavily reliant on specifics many people cannot engage with dreamwork as they are unable to commit to practicing dream recall which can require not only a time commitment in the morning after waking but also needs somatic agility to pause after waking and call to mind all the images in as exact details as possible and translate these images into a language that will be able to bring forth the specifics of the dream. Dreamwork, as with many things in life, comes into play in specifics.
An Example of Psychosocial Dreamwork
One recurring dream that can be used as an example and illustrate how to bring in these theories and identities is working with intruder dreams. In these dreams, the dreamer is in bed sleeping or paralyzed while known or unknown parties are attempting to and are successful in breaking into the dreamer’s home. The intruders then examine the contents of the home and rearrange or move things around without the owner’s consent or approval. This dream as represented here is a general dream that invites nonspecific interpretations and associations but when informed by the identity of the speaker in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class among other aspects, the dreamer can interpret the dream and thus receive a reflection of their psyche as it relates to the human experience. It’s important to recognize where the person is in their life and wherein the individuation process they are situated. The specific identities of the intruders if known to the dreamer and the relationship each persona has to the speaker. In addition, it’s important to realize that the personas that are represented in the dream do not always associate with the external person in the dreamer’s life but with aspects of the dreamer’s psyche. In other words, it’s not only about the dreamer’s relationship with their parents (who may be seen as the intruder in the dream) but also about aspects of the dreamer’s relationship with his child-self who the parents act as a proxy. When we see our mother we see the side of ourselves that needs to be nurtured and protected. The mother stands in relationship with the child. We can also see aspects of ourselves that relate to the parental archetype, or symbol. How the mother appears is important to note and furthermore what aspects appear to the dreamer. Is the intruder-dream” a nightmare or not? That will shade the possible interpretations significantly.
Conclusion
The benefits of dreamwork are to create a relationship between the known and the unknown; to build on a humble application of not knowing in order to deepen one’s relationship with the unconscious forces that impel the client towards certain patterns that the client may want to address. When the client has the experience of communication between the conscious and the unconscious it’s parallel to the communication between the right and left hemisphere of the brain. This communication allows for more integration of information and a deepening of knowledge of the mechanics of the individual’s psyche. This will result in more alignment in life and less stress around that which cannot be controlled. To acknowledge the complexity of one’s own psychological complexes is a significant step forward. According to Jungian psychology, “complexes are a grouping of related images held together by a common emotional tone. …. The ability of the objective psyche to form reconciling symbols is called the transcendent function because it can transcend the conscious tension of opposites. In this process, conflicts do not necessarily disappear, rather they are transcended and relativized” (Hall, 1983, p. 10-13).
Although there are many practitioners who claim to have been influenced by a Jungian perspective, and although there are trainings in Jungian vocabulary and understandings, the precise nature of the Jungian application understandably makes this approach less prevalent even in the transpersonal realm. Many naysayer,s claiming there is no reason to become so pedantic about vocabulary and understanding, may loosely apply dreamwork and dream interpretation using a variety of general dictionaries or interpretations. This practice has made dream work less sacred than it could be if one were to approach it with the reverence that Jungian psychologists bring to dreams and dreamwork.
Much of the literature I’ve read relating to dreamwork does not take into account the identities of the dreamer. The dreams are used as generic “sample” dreams that are meant to indicate the human experience. Some more advanced dream work books may group identity specific dreamers together in order to understand the experience of an ethnic or age specific demographic better. Anthologies that compile dreams of Mexican Americans for example may look vastly different than an anthology that compiles the dreams of South Asians. Some may wonder to what extent the dreamer is producing the images and to what extent they are pulling from their environment or the collective understanding. When we truly reject the materialist perspective, we can move towards an understanding of how consciousness and all its subtle structures produce phenomena. This indeed would require a multiple universe perspective, and it will be fascinating to see what happens if we can wrap our minds around it in future explorations.
References
Hall, J. A. (1983). Jungian Dream interpretation: A handbook of theory and practice. Inner City Books.
Johnson, R. A. (2009). Inner work: Using dreams and active imagination for personal growth. HarperOne.
Stein, M. (2022). Four pillars of Jungian psychoanalysis. Chiron Publications.
