Freud vs. Jung: Two Perspectives on Dream Interpretation

For as long as men can remember, dreams have been interpreted and reinterpreted into various theories of what dreams really are. Two giants stand out in the modern field of dream analysis, namely Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Starting out as colleagues and co-founders of psychoanalysis, they eventually worked out sharply contrasting approaches to interpreting dreams.

This blog examines Freud's and Jung's theories about dreams and their differences to show that, indeed, understanding both perspectives does have a deepening effect on the understanding of the human psyche.

1. Freud's Theory about Dreams: Wish Fulfillment

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, viewed dreams as wish-fulfilling. For him, dreams were a means for our unconscious mind to utter a desire to express itself with those desires and urges which it could not have in real life. That theory came about because actually Freud believed that the greater part of motives in life was instigated with repressed thoughts, desires, and emotions that reveal themselves during sleep.

The Play of Wish Fulfillment

It is here that the dream becomes, in Freud's words, the place of "safe place" from which the mind can act out fantasies and desires impermissible or unattainable in life. This can be explained through unrealized wishes to fly free or to be powerful. Through Freudian analysis, such a dream would be interpreted as the mind acting out and enacting desires in the life of a person which are not practical or decent to engage oneself in through the conscious mind.

Freud also identified the manifest content and latent content of a dream. The manifest content describes the dream itself as you remember it-that is, what actually occurred in the dream. However, the latent content describes the hidden, symbolic meaning of the dream from your unconscious wants and undisclosed thoughts.

Key Takeaway:

Freud considered dream as a wish-fulfillment and the beholding of our unconscious desires that we either could not, or did not want to, get in reality. His basic argument was that one unconscious thought or feeling may be communicated in dreams.

2. Jung's Dream Theory: Symbols and Archetypes

Carl Jung was an erstwhile colleague and close associate of Freud. He disagreed with the more literal method of dream interpretation espoused by Freud. Contrasting with Freud, who treated dreams mainly as the gratification of unfulfilled wishes, Jung conceptualized them as means for personal growth and individuation. As he held, they are replete with symbolism, matching deeper and more complex inner conflicts, desires, and universal truths.

Symbols of Dreams

Jung held that the dream is not a random, wish-driven creation of the mind but a window to the unconscious mind where metaphor and symbol unveil insight. For Jung, every dream contains symbols around which the individual struggles with himself or improves, though in some cases the universal archetypes can be found, that is, patterns and symbols that have representations in different cultures while reflecting common human experiences.

For instance, in regard to Jung, a person who dreams that he flies-this is not the desire to fly but may be the desire to fly away from everything chaining him or to climb any altitude of knowledge or consciousness. In the same vein, sexual dreams are not related to the urge for sex but are concerned with self-transformation or assimilation of quality one person envies in another.

Jung's Archetypes

Jung also promoted the notion of archetypes, or the appearance of universal symbols within the collective unconscious: the hero, mother, shadow, wise old man-but a few examples of archetypes which may take on one or more facets of the human experience. In interpreting a dream, Jung had to tease out these archetypes and symbols to uncover meaning about the inner life and personal journey of the dreamer.

Key Takeaway:

Generally speaking, Jung looked upon dreams as symbolic, carrying deeper messages from the unconscious psyche. As such, it's not about wish-fulfillment, but a dream acts metaphorically in relation to individual growth, personal conflict, and striving toward psychic wholeness.

3. Freud vs. Jung: Wish Fulfillment vs. Symbolism

Though both Freud and Jung looked upon dreams as very important portals to unconsciousness, their interpretation was extremely different from one another.

Freud treated the wishes as repressed desires which brought about dream fulfillments. He felt that such desires, if analyzed, could attain psychological healing once these unconscious wishes were uncovered to the light of consciousness.

Contrarily, Jung regarded dreams as symbolic expressions of the unconscious, which offer insight into the dreamer's affective or psychic state. Our unconscious guides us through messages in a dream toward self-realization, claimed Jung.

This makes the approach by Freud more limiting-lasting in practice, focusing, for the most part, on unsatisfied desires, whereas in Jung's case, the wider view allows interpretation to consider more general themes of growth and self-realization.

Key Takeaway:

While Freud's theory of dreams originates in the area of wish fulfillment or rather repressed desires, in Jung, such is symbolic and metaphoric in trying to touch both personal and universal truth.

4. Examples of Dreams: Freud vs. Jung

Flying Dreams

Freud's explanation: A flying dream is a wish about freedom or power, straight out. In real life, a dreamer cannot do anything and he may express a wish to be in control through a dream about flying.

Jung's View: Flying in a dream symbolizes man's desire to rise above the ills of his life or to see the wider horizon. It indicates a desire to overcome certain limitations or reach new heights intellectually and emotionally.

Sexual Dreams

Freud's explanation: In this case, Freud has interpreted the sexual dream literally and said that these dreams reflect such repressed sexual wishes which one cannot fulfill in reality.

Jung's Explanation: Conversely, Jung would see the sexual dream as a representation of integration, or uniting, with the qualities in another human that the dreamer perceives. It is a dream of not having sex, but embracing the qualities that further the growth of a person.

Key Takeaway:

While Freud's explanations of dreams are essentially dependant upon the notion of wish-fulfillment of certain repression, Jung looks at them as metaphors of personal growth and self-realization.

5. Which Dream Theory Holds Water?

Although both add great value to explaining dreams and their functions, the way they framed them was in a whole different light, whereas Freud's concept was deeply rooted in the unconscious wishes of a person, Jung's concept advocated the symbolic meaning of a dream in pursuit of personal development.

Freud's position:

• Pivots on unsatisfied longings.
• This feeds into repression of emotion.
• Can become reductionist, as they reduce the dreams to simple urges.

Jung's Approach:

• Regard dreams as symbolic.
• Offers the gateway to personal change.
• Allows deeper concepts of emotional and psychological insights to come out.

Key Takeaway:

Freud and Jung's dream theories depend upon one's point of view wherein some people believe that dreams are repressed desires, so they lean towards the Freud way. Others find these a symbolic trip into the discovery of one's self and so find Jung's interpretation to be more inclusive and enlightening.

Conclusion: Dreams as a Window to the Unconscious

Be it Freud's wish-fulfillment hypothesis or Jung's symbolic one, both theories stress the role of dreams in understanding the unconscious. Whereas Freud's wish-fulfilling content is harnessed around the gratification of unsatisfied needs of the self, Jung places an emphasis on personal growth using symbolism. Both theories provide immense power in the form of tools toward dream interpretation and help us unlock the deep meanings behind our nocturnal visions.

What does a dream mean for you: some kind of wish-fulfillment, symbolic reflection, or something else? Leave your comments below!