Together the patient and I address ourselves to the 2,000,000-year-old man that is in all of us.
Carl Jung in New York Times
The first patient was a theologian
During the work of interpretation one must abstain from all presuppositions that smack of superstition, such as, first and foremost, the notion that the protagonists in dreams are nothing other than these same persons in real life.
One should never forget that one dreams in the first place, and almost to the exclusion of all else, of oneself. (Any exceptions are governed by quite definite rules, but I cannot go into this here.)
If we acknowledge this truth we shall sometimes find ourselves faced with very interesting problems.
I remember two instructive cases: one of my patients dreamed of a drunken tramp who lay in a ditch, and another of a drunken prostitute who rolled about in the gutter.
The first patient was a theologian, the second a distinguished lady in high society.
Both of them were outraged and horrified, and absolutely refused to admit that they had dreamed of themselves.
I gave them both the well-meant advice that they should spend an hour in self-reflection, diligently and devoutly considering in what ways they were not much better than their drunken brother in the ditch and their drunken sister in the gutter.
The subtle process of self-knowledge often begins with a bomb-shell like this.
The “other” person we dream of is not our friend and neighbour, but the other in us, of whom we prefer to say: “I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as this publican and sinner.”
Certainly the dream, being a child of nature, has no moralizing intention; it merely exemplifies the well-known law that no trees reach up to heaven. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 321
Carl Jung advice to a patient
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
To Mr. 0.
Dear Mr. 0., 30 April 1947
Having studied your dream-material and having had a personal impression of your actual state of mind I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong in the whole handling of your case,
in spite of the fact that everything seems to be correct.
The fact is that you have an uncannily extensive material one can hardly hope to cope with, at least I couldn’t muster the amount of energy that would be required to deal with your dreams properly.
In order to keep up with them one would need at least 3 hours a week.
As you know, the principle of my technique does not consist only in analysis and interpretation of such materials as are produced by the unconscious, but also in their synthesis by active imagination.
Of the latter I have seen nothing yet.
But this is precisely the “technique” which seems to be indicated in your situation.
You are not only informed enough but also intelligent enough to go on for a long stretch on the assumption that I’m buried and that there is no analyst for you under the changing moon except the one that is in your own heart.
As you will understand, this does not mean at all that you analyse and interpret your dreams according to the rules of the thumb, but that you do what we call in the German language the “Auseinandersetzung mit dem Unbewussten,” which is a dialectical procedure you carry through with yourself with the aid of active imagination.
This is the best means I know to reduce an inordinate production of the unconscious.
It doesn’t seem right that a man like yourself is still dependent upon analysts.
It is also not good for you, because it produces again and again a most unwholesome dissociation of your opposites, namely pride and humility.
It will be good for your humility if you can accept the gifts of the unconscious guide that dwells in yourself, and it is good for your pride to humiliate itself to such an extent that you can accept what you receive.
I don’t intend to behave as if I were a corpse already.
I’m therefore quite willing to help in your attempt in this direction, but I refuse in your own interest to plague myself with your material which is only helpful when you acquire its understanding by your own effort.
Pride is a wonderful thing when you know how to fulfill its expectations.
Did you never ask yourself who my analyst is?
Yet, when it comes to the last issue, we must be able to stand alone vis a vis the unconscious for better or worse.
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 458-459.
