Carl Jung on how he handles Dreams
. ..I handle the dream as if it were a text which I do not understand properly, say a Latin or Greek or Sanskrit text, where certain words are unknown to me or the text is fragmentary… My idea is that the dream does not conceal; we simply do not understand its language…There is a very wise word of the Talmud which says that the dream is its own interpretation. The dream is the whole thing…[172]
Therefore, first of all, when you handle a dream you say, ‘I do not understand a word of that dream.’ I always welcome that feeling of incompetence because then I know I shall put some good work into my attempt to understand the dream…[p.173]
Something more is needed to bring certain things home to us effectively enough to make us change our attitude and our behavior. That is what “dream language” does; its symbolism has so much psychic energy that we are forced to pay attention to it.” (Man & his symbols, p.49)
No dream symbol can be separated from the individual who dreams it, and there is no definite or straightforward interpretation of any dream. Each individual varies so much in the way that his unconscious complements or compensates his conscious mind that it is impossible to be sure how far dreams and their symbols can be classified at all. ~Carl Jung; Man & his symbols; Page. 53
