Modern Man in Search of a Soul

“I have found that dreams not infrequently bring to light in an unmistakable way the unconscious contents that are causal factors in a neurosis.”

Dream analysis is an important part of the psychoanalytic process, which assumes that hidden brain activities cause mental health issues. Dreams arise out of the unconscious as a person sleeps; their contents offer important clues as to what’s bothering the patient.

“I do not, of course, deny that many neuroses have a traumatic origin; I simply contest the notion that all neuroses are of this nature and arise without exception from some crucial experience of childhood.”

Jung differs from his mentor, Sigmund Freud, by asserting that not all mental health issues arise from childhood traumas. He also states that dreams don’t always point to the cause of a troubling issue, and that focusing exclusively on the search for a traumatic cause overlooks the power of dreams to forecast future behavior and offer solutions to problems.

“The unconscious is not a demonic monster, but a thing of nature that is perfectly neutral as far as moral sense, æsthetic taste and intellectual judgement go. It is dangerous only when our conscious attitude towards it becomes hopelessly false. And this danger grows in the measure that we practise repressions.”

A major break between Jung and his Freudian predecessors is his belief that the unconscious isn’t a dark morass but the inner workings of a mind that manifests itself through conscious awareness. The purpose of Jungian therapy therefore involves aligning the energies of conscious and unconscious impulses rather than helping the conscious mind stage-manage its unconscious underpinnings.