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
