Dream and myth: the foundation for depth psychology Freud hypothesized that dreams were a means for establishing a universal method for studying the human psyche. He felt that dreams provided a means for studying the psyche in a manner similar to that used to study the physiological characteristics of the body. In studying dreams and myth he theorized that one could make comparative interpretation of a universality of symbolism. “It was the insight that, just as dreams express the unconscious of individuals, myths express the unconscious of the human species as a whole…the symbolism of myth expresses the processes of the psyche in their quintessential form in contrast to the more personal contents of dreams deriving from merely individual experiences.” Freud thought that dreams expressed the unconscious domain of the individual. He furthermore considered that there existed a relationship between myths and dreams. Dreams represented the individual’s unconscious response and myth represented societies’ unconscious fundamental form of the social psyche in symbolic form. Freud theorized that “by deciphering the symbolism of myths…he would be able to apply the general principle to the particular case of the individual personality by relating dreams to myths…it was this that became the foundation for depth psychology.” Quotes from “The Death and Rebirth of Psychology”—Ira Progoff.
Freud is a little dated. For this reason he is studied today only in the most conservative halls: medical schools, which are unfortunately the source of our psychiatrists. Jung expanded on this germ of an idea, with the study of the collective unconscious and archetypes. Archetypes are hard-wired synapses we are born with; motifs that occur in nearly every society and nearly every era, things we all believe because they feel true. The collective unconscious is a mix of archetypes--species-wide motifs--with community-wide motifs: ideas and images that have been developed by a culture or subculture, tribe, family, etc. Myths tend to be primarily collections of archetypes. Religions are textbook examples. The Egyptians, Greeks, and other early civilizations had pantheons with strikingly similar gods and goddesses, despite having arisen independently. Other myths such as the city lost beneath the sea or the flood that wipes out civilization are also widespread and independent. Archetypes are not limited to stories and may also manifest in other ways such as rituals or artistic images. Dreams tap the collective unconscious for both universal archetypes and community motifs--as well as, obviously, tapping strictly personal memories. Jung proceeded to establish the universal symbol catalog of archetypes that Freud speaks of. Any Jungian therapist can tell you what fire, a duck, or flying above the earth is likely to represent in your dreams.
The beginning was to interpret the meaning of myth symbolism—Jung followed Freud’s lead with the assumption that the psychic was an independent autonomously functioning part of the human organism—he agreed with Freud regarding the relationship of dreams to myth—also agreed that the basic experiences of primal times were transmitted across generations—general tendencies toward specific behavior—phylogenetic (based on natural evolutionary relationships) memory—inherited memories must be interpreted as historical only and in an abstract generic sense—Jung felt that there was too large a gap between dream and myth and developed an extension to regional or cultural mythologies. Jung concluded that each myth must be interpreted in its own way—each myth could be understood only within its own milieu—its own logic—he took the cultural differences as a start in interpreting each myth—he felt that he could in this way find the underlying universal logic of the psychic life of humans—leading to the concept of archetypes—archetypes recognized basic themes that represent a common core historical myth forms. Jung’s archetypes are based upon Freud’s early thought—the underlying difference between Jung and Freud was Freud’s primacy of sexuality and certain temperamental differences. “Freud’s view was that those primal urges that cannot be expressed in consciousness are repressed. They are pressed back and down into the unconscious where they may or may not remain inactive. The net result is that the unconscious becomes the storing place for wishes that cannot be fulfilled.” Repression and unconscious wish fulfillment represents the base for Freud’s theory of dreams and anxiety—the theory of anxiety follows the theory of repression—the repressed represents the prototype of the unconscious—many criticize Feud’s negativity expressed in this theory—Adler, Jung, and Rank broke with Freud at this point—Jung was the only follower who continued work directly with Freud’s concept of the unconscious.
