CG Jung – Essential writings

Carl Gustav Jung surely qualifies as one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. His insights into psychology, psychiatry, and the human mind in general were revolutionary genius.

Dreams were one of his main centers of interest. He also developed the theories of archetypes, the collective unconscious, synchronicity, individuation, etc. Although the terminology used is not the same, it seems that he also interacted with what DV would call dream characters.

In general, the thoughts and ideas he developed are highly relevant for anybody wanting to understand more about lucid dreaming (and about what makes us who we are in general).

He wrote a lot (a huge amount, in fact), and not always in a very accessible style. I’ve read various texts of his, here and there, but wanted to bring the following book to the attention of anybody who might be interested:

Jung – A very short introduction, by Anthony Stevens – Oxford University Press

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019285458...5Fencoding=UTF8

In just over 150 pages, all of Jung’s most important theories are clearly explained. Historical context is outlined, as are his exchanges with Freud. I just finished reading it, and really think it would be of great interest to a lot of people on DV.

Just thought I’d share!


PS: I’m not a salesperson, and am not an Amazon.com shareholder! (So my only personal stake in this guy is that he was also Swiss. Yay!)

:thumbup: I think C.G. Jung was an amazing man and a genius.

His work on helping people find meaning within has inspired many.

His interest in symbolism across cultures and in dreams is fascinating.

If you are interested in dream interpretation, you really should read Jung. An expensive but rivetting books is Seminar on Dream Analysis

However I would also point out that Jung did not believe in lucid dreaming. His theory of dreams was that they were a "pure product of the unconscious" unaffected by conscious intent. This relates to his theory of the compensatory nature of dreams as well.

To me this shows we need to be cautious about making theories absolute. When LaBerge categorically states that OBEs are simply a form of WILD, I wonder if he is making a similar error.

Jung certainly had a penetrating intellect..i have a few anthologies of various essays which sit half read on my shelf, as well as "man and his symbols", which was a fascinating read (and i believe the last book he wrote). As well, "the secret of the golden flower" with richard wilhelm is also waiting to be read sometime n the future.

i find the collective unconcious, archetypes, and synchronicity to be intruiging, intuitively pleasing concepts, and all the more promising for their roots in such varied times, places, and cultures.

though as asclepius mentioned, i was under the impression he did not believe in the validity of lucid dreams...

though he was the main influence which made me take interest in my dreams, and attempt interpetation....odd actually,...now that i've discovered lucid dreaming, which he didn't include in his insights, i hardly ever look for meaning in the "chaff" of non-lucids anymore.

Oh wow. I might just have to get myself a copy. Quite a few of my friends are interested in Jung, so I might as well read up on him.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067972395...glance&n=283155

i've only read this by jung. it's exactly what it says... it's his personal experiences, not solely theory.

It would be nice to sit down with the Collected Works and just skim through to sections that suddenly seem accessible (and, yes, one can go through complete volumes without finding two sensible words put together) but there are luminous sections. I particularly remember reading of a few important dreams in the title "Aion". There was one dream cited in which there was something like a pond of water in which there were 3 circles, and a golden fish in the center-most circle. It was a wonderful dream, but I read it in a college library almost 50 years ago, and wish I had a better memory. But my lasting impression was that Jung believed that Dreams had a significant reality behind them... that he wasn't some Materialist who believed that dreams sourced out of indigestion and the mental clutter of the day.

Yes, Carl Gustav Jung is probably one of my favorite psychologists to read, and most of his ideas are on the collective unconcious and the functions of personality are far beyond that of his colleague Freud, actually giving a reason and purpose for problems of gender and sexuality issues through the Anima and Animus which makes far more sense IMO.

Freud and Jung used to be pretty good friends, until of course Freud was shocked to find Jung trying to disprove his Oedipus complex.

I’ve been wondering for a little while now about Jung’s exact views on LDs. I’m not so sure, as Asclepius writes, that Jung “did not believe in lucid dreaming”. We might just be dealing with a problem of terminology here.

As I mentioned above, Jung clearly did converse with figures from his own mind (which he stated were archetypes). The descriptions of these interactions would be familiar to anybody who has chatted with dream characters while lucid. However, it would seem that Jung talked about being in a “trance” state while doing this (and not necessarily in a dream state).

But I’m sure we could agree that the distinction between having a WILD and entering a “trance” is to a certain extent one of words, is it not? (From the little I know about shamanism, for example, what they describe as leaving the body and floating about in the “spirit world” sounds just like WILDs to me, but they obviously have their own terms for it).

So my theory would be that different people have different words to talk about what is essentially the same thing and this is why it would seem that Jung didn’t directly deal with lucid dreams - he just called them something else… But I’d love to talk about this with a Jungian analyst and hear what they have to say.

I've been very interested in Jung for the passed few months and am still looking for a lot of his literature, so thanks for the info, man. :goodjob2:

Yeah i rate Jung alot

he's hard to read, but its worth the struggle

nice to see a "scientist " do a good jo of explaining "sychronicity" and "dreams" two of my favourite bug bears

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Originally posted by three and four

As I mentioned above, Jung clearly did converse with figures from his own mind (which he stated were archetypes). The descriptions of these interactions would be familiar to anybody who has chatted with dream characters while lucid. However, it would seem that Jung talked about being in a “trance” state while doing this (and not necessarily in a dream state).
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Yes Jung had an approach to interacting with the dreams which he wrote about as Active Imagination

This is more of a directed daydreaming than a deep trance, or WILD. The client speaks what they were seeing to the therapist. And takes some direction from the therapist.

Jung also did this as part of this own self-analysis. Leading some more conservative thinkers to believe he had psychotic episodes! (This quite unfair, and shows the narrowness of some people's thinking.) The more 'spiritually' inclined believe that Jung was talking with his spirit guide. Jung preferred to think of them as aspects of himself which were in turn representative of archetypal figures that anyone could encounter within.

I think that Jung has a lot to teach us. But I don't think its about lucid dreaming.

Anyone have any links to his works that are accessable to read online?

The only piece of Jung I've read is his foreword and commentary for The Secret of The Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life including The Book of Consciousness and Life (The Hui Ming Ching). He immediately hailed it as a link between the insights of the East and the conclusions drawn from his own psychological research.

Carl Jung was influenced by two main streams of thought in the early 20th century, the French school of Psychiatry and Freud's psychoanalysis. In France, psychiatrists like Charcot were well known for their study of schizophrenics and people with multiple personalities. Meanwhile, in Austria, Freud was equally if not more famous for his concept of the unconscious; the idea that the psyche has a structure.

Jung started his career as a psychiatrist working in mental hospitals. He treated schizophrenics and wrote an early book on the topic. Jung saw his patients as suffering from a complete shattering of the personality. They experienced their thoughts as auduitory hallucinations. They couldn't distinguish between imagination and reality. They had lost their sense of self.

Jung had always had a strong interest in mythology and religion. His father was a pastor. As Jung listened to the schizophrenics ramble, to his surprise, he recognized ancient mythological themes and images; ideas he had read about in his spare time and stories from his upbringing. He wondered how these sick and institutionalized people could come to have these mythological ideas in their heads?

Freud believed that the psyche had a hidden structure. He likened the mind to a giant iceberg floating in the ocean. What is seen, the tip of the iceberg, is the conscious mind. This part of the mind sits atop a far more massive sub-structure underneath the surface--this was the unconscious.

Freud was a strict Empiricist. As far as he was concerned the mind was a 'blank slate' upon which direct experience was written. Freud didn't believe that anything other than that which a person had seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled dwelled in the unconcious. He insisted on this point in his interpretation of his own dreams, always pointing out some specific and trivial personal memory that was the source of the idea or image in the dream.

Carl Jung and Dreaming