Using of Carl Gustav Jung’s dream analysis as a psychotherapeutic method

Abstract

The aim of the paper is a short summary the theory of Carl Gustav Jung related to dream analysis as it can be used in practice in psychotherapeutic work with patients.

Besides the original thesis of this author, some views of his more contemporary successors are also used.

Jung thinks about psyche as a wholeness which is organized to realize the goal of full human development (called by him the process of individuation). The conscious and unconscious part of psyche complement each other. So the unconsciousness is (or at least can be) constructive, creative and active. Jung understood dreams as a way of communication of some important contents from unconsciousness to consciousness. Dreams have three main functions: regulating, therapeutic (compensation) and integrating (progressive).

The first stage of work relates to free associations to every element of a dream. Then an active imagination is supposed to be used. The last stage is called amplification – it is trying to put the experience of an individual into more universal frames. Jung discovered that a dream is constructed similarly to the classic Greek drama with its typical stages.