more about dreams

in answer to a question --

Certainly, Jung spoke of big dreams in his life and in the experience of his patients, exploring the conceptual framework of a shared collective that might be pulled up into consciousness. (Possibly; by the end of his life Jung would say he had no definite convictions, only that "I was born and exist, and it seems that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being." Exist seems the key word here. Exist -- now that's the mystery!)

That's my reading of Jung, for what it's worth. I understand using words like "seem" and "might" and "possibly" flavor the points with weakness. But I'm trying to be precise.

With all we're learning with heritability, studies over generations, it seems things are not so writ in stone as we commonly accept. Nothing so literal. Even in physics.

That we "think" in the unconscious tends to be well established. A useful model, anyway. Dreams speak to that. A key, a clue, an interface. Possibly self-revealing.

So then. What the dream might be "saying from a Jungian perspective": only you would know that.

You are, first of all, talking to yourself, and emotion is our deepest language. How did the dreams make you feel when you first woke from them? We tend to face things as we're ready, and sometimes they need to sneak up.

If nothing more, dreams are an interesting form of sociability. Again, they get you thinking about things you might not otherwise think about. They challenge your perspective, and thus, your possibilities.

What the dream is trying to reveal, you ask. Reveal. I'd approach that word cautiously. Reveal seems the stuff of inflation, Jung would warn. It's self serving and also the stuff of tyrants.

Best,
Deborah

Note: Personally, I cut my teeth on the Behaviorists in college. All that went right out the window when I laid eyes on my firstborn. S-R seems a useful tool in small settings where the variables are controlled... or in the biz model world of neuromarketing. Or perhaps, in neurotic states like, say, romance. Like business and money, it's really about dopamine. Which isn't about getting something. It's about anticipating getting something... Increase the bang by rewarding only ~1/4 to 1/3 of the time. Shh. Don't let them know this.