Book Description

A new translation of Jung's early 1909 essay "The Analysis of Dreams" (L'Analyse des röves) in which he delineates the basic framework of Jungian Psychoanalysis and his iteration of Freud's dream-theories. This is an essay published by Carl Jung originally written in French and published under the title L'Analyse' des röves" in: Annee psychologique XV (Paris 1909) pp. 160-16. This work is not to be confused with Frued's 1900 The Dream Analysis. This Essay is Jung's commentary on Freud's massive and groundbreaking work on the subject. This edition is a new translation from the original German manuscript with an Afterword by the Translator, a philosophic index of Jung's terminology and a timeline of his life and works. Originally published in French in the journal Année Psychologique, this essay delves into the psychoanalytic process of dream interpretation, which Jung believed to be an essential path to understanding the unconscious. At this time, Jung still largely adhered to Freud’s view that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious," and agreed that dreams often represented repressed thoughts, particularly sexual or aggressive impulses. However, Jung begins to diverge from Freud’s theory of dreams by suggesting that the symbolism in dreams could not always be reduced to latent sexual meanings. Instead, Jung introduced the idea that dreams reflect more than just personal repressed desires; they may also reveal deeper, universal themes tied to the collective unconscious—a concept he would elaborate on more fully later in his career. Jung emphasizes that dream symbols are not purely personal but may have archetypal significance, reflecting broader patterns of human experience. This essay is also a precursor to Jung’s later theories on individuation, where dreams play a crucial role in the process of integrating various aspects of the psyche. While Freud saw dreams primarily as wish-fulfillments, Jung viewed them as expressions of the unconscious that can offer meaningful guidance for the dreamer's life. He believed dreams often served a compensatory function, balancing out one-sided conscious attitudes with material from the unconscious.