Actually the essay on Symbols and Interpretation of Dreams in the book you mentioned is the first chapter in Man and His Symbols, but the rest of the book has many other interesting information from colleagues whom Jung trusted.
As you mention, there are problems with the translation of Jung’s works into English. Some believe that the translator RFC Hull didn’t really do very well, but Jung himself, who was very proficient in English, believed that Hull’s translations were quite good in contrast to some others which were done.
I think part of the problem of understanding Jung comes from the need to actually experience in a practical way what he’s saying.
He had to write his books for an “academic” group as opposed to the general public, just like scientific papers are written today, so the language has to be kind of precise and dry.
Later, others try to simplify what’s behind the complex ideas of the original published books from Jung and others such Einstein or Stephen Hawking etc. in order to clarify in practical terms what they are talking about.
If you haven’t come across them, here are a few books you might like by Jungian analysts who are able to describe in a simple but thorough way various parts of Jung’s ideas so that it’s easier to link what he wrote about to a person’s everyday life: Robert Johnson, “Inner Work”,
Mary Ann Mattoon, “Jung and the Human Psyche: An Understandable Introduction”,
James A. Hall M.D., “Jungian Dream Interpretation”.
Regarding my ideas about “warning dreams”, I was actually thinking specifically of those where the dreamer sees people they know doing something destructive or negative, the idea being that they will do something directly or indirectly harmful to the dreamer themselves.
The dreams you mentioned about the mountain-climbing man are a good example of “warning” or “prospective” dreams in general which are saying something like “If you continue doing (such-and-such), then this will happen”.
Symbolically, as Jung said, the man was trying to escape to the “heights” away from the “ground” of his being totally enmeshed in shady deals instead of working in some kind of very difficult but practical way to face the situation and “come down” voluntarily. Instead, the psyche took over and induced him to commit suicide.
So dream motifs such as flying, falling, drowning, being chased etc. are among those which can show the dreamer that something’s going wrong and therefore such “warnings” should be paid attention to.
Anyway, thanks for clarifying things so that I in turn could make clearer what I was going on about!
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