Dream Interpretation Ancient and Modern: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936–1941 - Updated Edition (Bollingen Series) - Hardcover

Jung, C. G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691159459 ISBN 13: 9780691159454

Verlag: Princeton University Press, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

From 1936 to 1941, C. G. Jung gave a four-part seminar series in Zurich on children's dreams and the historical literature on dream interpretation. This book completes the two-part publication of this landmark seminar, presenting the sessions devoted to dream interpretation and its history. Here we witness Jung as both clinician and teacher: impatient and sometimes authoritarian but also witty, wise, and intellectually daring, a man who, though brilliant, could be vulnerable, uncertain, and humbled by life's mysteries. These sessions open a window on Jungian dream interpretation in practice, as Jung examines a long dream series from the Renaissance physician Girolamo Cardano. They also provide the best example of group supervision by Jung the educator. Presented here in an inspired English translation commissioned by the Philemon Foundation, these sessions reveal Jung as an impassioned teacher in dialogue with his students as he developed and refined the discipline of analytical psychology. An invaluable document of perhaps the most important psychologist of the twentieth century at work, this splendid book is the fullest representation of Jung's interpretations of dream literatures, filling a critical gap in his collected works.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Peck is a Jungian analyst in private practice. He is a cotranslator of Jung's Red Book and the author of ten books of poetry, including Contradance. Lorenz Jung, now deceased, was a grandson of C. G. Jung and a Jungian analyst in private practice. Maria Meyer-Grass is a Jungian analyst in private practice. Ernst Falzeder is lecturer at the University of Innsbruck and senior editor at the Philemon Foundation. He is the editor of The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham, 1907-1925.

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"This beautifully translated volume foregrounds the mature Jung and demonstrates how dreams, over time, will always illuminate the intentions of our souls and expose the attitudes that limit us. As John Peck notes, Jung's standpoint draws upon dramatic as well as medical perspectives to bring out the individuating purposiveness at the heart of dreaming."--John Beebe, author ofIntegrity in Depth

"This important seminar affords us the rare privilege of experiencing Jung as a palpably salty master teacher. Already highly regarded for his collaboration on translating Jung'sRed Book, John Peck supplies a tour de force introduction that shows how Jung's reading of the unfolding action in dreams underwrites our senses of emergence, destiny, fate, and freedom. This book is a must for anyone interested in dream work and the legacy of Jungian psychology."--Stanton Marlan, president of the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts

"This is a very important book that adds a critical dimension to the Jungian literature. It provides a look into how Jung formulated his thinking in a group setting, and how he tried to put forward his conceptualizations. Readers will encounter Jung's darker side, but they will also become acquainted with his creative genius for interpreting dreams, his wide scholarship, and his penetrating intuition."--Brian Feldman, Jungian psychoanalyst

"This book is a major contribution to understanding Jung's method of dream interpretation. It elucidates more deeply than other edited and translated texts the inner dynamics of Jung's epistemology with regard to his understanding of the human psyche. The book represents an exceptionally high level of scholarship."--Eugene Taylor, author ofWilliam James on Consciousness beyond the Margin

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"This beautifully translated volume foregrounds the mature Jung and demonstrates how dreams, over time, will always illuminate the intentions of our souls and expose the attitudes that limit us. As John Peck notes, Jung's standpoint draws upon dramatic as well as medical perspectives to bring out the individuating purposiveness at the heart of dreaming."--John Beebe, author ofIntegrity in Depth

"This important seminar affords us the rare privilege of experiencing Jung as a palpably salty master teacher. Already highly regarded for his collaboration on translating Jung'sRed Book, John Peck supplies a tour de force introduction that shows how Jung's reading of the unfolding action in dreams underwrites our senses of emergence, destiny, fate, and freedom. This book is a must for anyone interested in dream work and the legacy of Jungian psychology."--Stanton Marlan, president of the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts

"This is a very important book that adds a critical dimension to the Jungian literature. It provides a look into how Jung formulated his thinking in a group setting, and how he tried to put forward his conceptualizations. Readers will encounter Jung's darker side, but they will also become acquainted with his creative genius for interpreting dreams, his wide scholarship, and his penetrating intuition."--Brian Feldman, Jungian psychoanalyst

"This book is a major contribution to understanding Jung's method of dream interpretation. It elucidates more deeply than other edited and translated texts the inner dynamics of Jung's epistemology with regard to his understanding of the human psyche. The book represents an exceptionally high level of scholarship."--Eugene Taylor, author ofWilliam James on Consciousness beyond the Margin

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Dream Interpretation Ancient & Modern

Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936–1941

By C.G. JUNG

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2014 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-691-15945-4

Contents

Note to the English Edition, vii, 
Acknowledgments, ix, 
Preface and Introduction by the Original Editors, Lorenz Jung and Maria Meyer-Grass, xi, 
Calendar Contents for the Full Seminar, Winter Term, 1936/37–Winter Term, 1940/41 (coordinated with Children's Dreams Seminar), xvii, 
Introduction by the editor, John Peck, xxi, 
A. Older Literature on Dream Interpretation (Commencing Winter Term 1936/37), 
CHAPTER 1. Macrobius: Commentarius ex Cicerone in Somnium Scipionis Paper by W. Bächtold, 3, 
CHAPTER 2. Artemidorus: Five Books on the Art of Dream Interpretation Paper by Grete Adler, 14, 
CHAPTER 3. Synesius of Cyrene: Treatise on Dream Visions Paper by Rivkah Schärf, 22, 
CHAPTER 4. Caspar Peucer, De Somniis Paper by Marie-Louise von Franz, 32, 
B. The Enlightenment and Romanticism, 
CHAPTER 5. M. l'Abbé Richard, Théorie des songes Paper by Dr. Alice Leuzinger, 45, 
CHAPTER 6. Franz Splittgerber, Schlaf und Tod Paper by Kristin Oppenheim, 49, 
C. The Modern Period, 
CHAPTER 7. Yves Delage, Le Rêve Paper by Hans Baumann, 57, 
CHAPTER 8. Discussion of Paul W. Radestock, Schlaf und Traum Paper by Dr. Alice Kitzinger, 69, 
CHAPTER 9. Discussion of Philipp Lersch, Der Traum in der deutschen Romantik Paper by Dr. Charlotte Spitz, 74, 
CHAPTER 10. Discussion of Jackson Steward Lincoln, The Dream in Primitive Cultures Paper by Dr. Kenower Bash, 82, 
CHAPTER 11. Discussion of Eugène Marais, The Soul of the White Ant Paper by Carol Baumann, 94, 
D. Visions and Dreams, 
CHAPTER 12. Discussion of the Visions of St. Perpetua Paper by Marie-Louise von Franz, 107, 
CHAPTER 13. Discussion of the Dreams of the Renaissance Scholar Girolamo Cardano Paper by Dr. E. Lev, 122, 
CHAPTER 14. Discussion of Three Dreams of Dr. John Hubbard, alias Peter Blobbs (The Censer, the Swinging Ax, and the Man at the End of the Corridor) Paper by Carol Baumann, 216, 
Bibliography, 241, 
Index, 249, 

CHAPTER 1

Macrobius: Commentarius ex Cicerone in Somnium Scipionis

Paper by W. Bächtold

Mr. Bächtold: Macrobius lived around AD 400. He was a Neoplatonist in Rome who wrote in support of pagan antiquity. Besides his commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, to be discussed here, his works are the Saturnalia and contributions to grammar.

The text of Scipio's dream in Cicero's De re publica is extant only in the work of Macrobius, and has been reconstructed from that source. The dreamer is Scipio Africanus Junior (Africanus Minor). He lived from 185 to 129 BC, dying at fifty-six (= eight times seven years, which will be important later on). By adoption he became the grandson of Scipio (Africanus Maior). In 146 he conquered Carthage, and in 133 Numantia. He was killed in 129 BC.

Scipio visited Africa together with his invited friend Masinissa. They discussed Scipio Senior (Africanus Maior), who had defeated Hannibal. The following night he dreamed:

[Abbreviated summary] Africanus Maior—his spiritual father—appears to him and prophesies that he, the son, would destroy Carthage in two years. At first he would be sent to various countries as a legate, then become consul, and finally dictator and restorer of the state. He would achieve pre-eminence, provided that his relatives did not kill him beforehand. Then he is told that those who had distinguished themselves by their virtues [virtutes] would live on after death. At that point young Scipio professes his wish to die. His father warns him that he is not allowed to do, for that would arrogate a right reserved to the gods. His father then reveals heaven with its nine spheres, and then the earth, divided into several zones. Finally, his father reveals to him the immortality and divinity of the soul, declaring, "deum te esse scitare."

This dream was recorded by Cicero, and Macrobius wrote a long commentary on it. Chapters 1 and 2 of his contribution contain the introduction and philosophical disputations; in the third chapter he presents a classification of dreams into five categories:

1. somnium: dreams proper

2. visio: vision (la vision)

3. oraculum: oracle (l'oracle)

4. insomnium: (le rêve) [dream image, insomnia]

5. visum: phantasm, phantasmagoria (le spectre) [dream vision, apparition]

According to Macrobius, the last two categories are not worthy of explanation, because they contain nothing divine (divinatio): in the insomnium we experience the same as in waking daily life, the same hardships and labors. These dreams are about our love, our enemies, about food, money, or prestige, in the sense that sometimes we win them, sometimes we lose them. The insomnium is gone with the night, lacks meaning and significance, and in no way can we profit from it. The visum appears when we are neither asleep nor awake, but still in a semi-conscious state. Fantasy figures appear that cannot be found in nature. They dance around us, sometimes instilling joy, sometimes sadness. People believe that stomachache in sleep is caused by these creatures. So these two kinds of dreams cannot help us read the future.

This case is different with the other three kinds. The oracle presents itself as follows: an honorable, important person appears (father, mother, priest, deity) and enlightens us about what we ought or ought not to do, what is or is not going to happen. The vision is a look into the future. We dream of something that will happen shortly afterward, for instance, of a friend who will visit us. The dream proper (somnium) invariably expresses itself, according to Macrobius, figuratively (symbolically), and in such a confusing way that we have to interpret it. This dream proper is divided into five subcategories:

a. proprium: about the dreamer himself, in an active or passive role

b. alienum: about another person

c. commune: the common experience of a group in the dream

d. publicum: about a community: city, square, theater, etc.

e. generale: the universe (heaven, stars, earth) speaks to the dreamer to tell him something new.

In Scipio's dream, we can find the first three categories and all five subcategories: (1.) the oracle (his grandfather Africanus explains the future to him); (2.) the vision (he sees the place where he will live after his death); (3.) the dream (without interpretation it is impossible to understand what he has been told). The five subcategories can be found as follows in the dream: (a) proprium (he, Scipio, is led to the higher regions); (b) alienum (he sees other souls in the realm of the dead; (c) commune (what he sees also relates to him, because after his death he will have the same experience); (d) publicum (dealing with Rome's victory over Carthage); (e) generale (he sees movements in the heavens and hears the music of the spheres).

How is it that Scipio has such a "great dream," being still a simple soldier at that moment? The general view was that such dreams were dreamed only by the "magistratus et rector rei publicae." The answer to this question therefore would be: because Scipio is initiated into the secrets of nature, excels in manly bravery and virtues (virtutes), and distinguishes himself by worldly wisdom.

Virgil speaks of the two gates of the underworld, through which dreams come, one made of ivory, the other of horn. According to Virgil, true dreams come from the gate of horn alone. Porphyry explains this as follows: "Truth hides; however, the soul can sometimes see it when the body has gone to sleep and gives the soul more freedom. The rays of the deity reach our eye only in a refracted way, as if the light were shining through horn."

In the fourth chapter of the book, on the goal and intent of the dream, Macrobius tells us that deserving souls return to heaven and enjoy eternal blessedness, which is worth more than any worldly fame.

And now, unbelievable as it may be to our eyes, Macrobius begins interpreting the dream in exactly the same way that we do in our seminar. He examines one part of the dream after the other, looking for parallels in mythology. In particular he draws on Orphic, Pythagorean, and Platonic teachings.

I would like to treat this method in greater detail, as we must follow the same procedure in the interpretation of a dream. As we know, dreams often express themselves in symbolic language, give no more than allusions, or are incomplete. Ideas appear, or better, images, which at first have no meaning for us at all. We have to enrich these images, infuse them with meaning, give them content. Of course this should not be done arbitrarily, but according to a very specific method. We have to enrich the dream with ideas, submit it to comparison. Hence we could speak of an amplifying and comparative method.

An analogy exists in comparative anatomy. An animal's organ seems unintelligible from a purely morphological point of view, but as soon as we view it with the help of comparative anatomy, that organ is seen in context and is full of meaning. We draw on several ancillary sciences, such as embryology, paleontology, etc. In a similar way, we also use ancillary arts, such as the mythologies of all peoples and countries, sagas and folktales, religions, and history. In these fields we are looking for parallels to a given motif. And we find them; further connections and explanations often emerge, accounting for why something is one way or the other.

Perhaps it was even easier for Macrobius than for us. As a man of antiquity, for him mythological concepts were much more alive. He drew on the whole body of Pythagorean, Orphic, and Platonic teachings and cosmology for his commentary, proceeding quite comprehensively, so that here it is impossible to give an account of everything. I must limit myself to the most interesting points.

Macrobius selects various dream passages that deserve special attention. He begins with the phrase in which Scipio Africanus Maior says to the younger man, verbatim:

For when your age will have completed eight times seven recurring rotations of the sun, and when these two numbers, each of which—although for different reasons—is considered to be full, will have completed, according to the natural rotation, that number of life years imposed on you, then the attention of the whole country will be directed toward you and your name, ... etc.... if you escape the treacherous hands of your relatives (chapter 5).

Then follows a discussion of numbers in general, and of seven and eight in particular. When man lets his thoughts gradually rise from objects in nature toward divine phenomena, numbers are an intermediary stage between the actual phenomena and the divine. For bodies can change, due to their molecular composition, but numbers are quasi-eternal values, beyond becoming and passing away. Macrobius speaks of the plenitudo, the "fullness" of numbers. His train of thought is as follows: we have a body that has a certain number of areas and lines, and although the body is something material, in relation to it areas and lines are immaterial. This is even truer for numbers in relation to lines.

Professor Jung: We can see how precisely Macrobius is proceeding here, and one will either marvel at it or be bored stiff. But let us not forget that the book was written 1,500 years ago. Concepts then were not yet as precise as they are today; still, concepts had to be conceived, mostly in a very long-winded way. This is simply an aside about the interesting way in which human thinking has developed.

Mr. Bächtold: Among the numbers, the number eight is particularly plenus. It is composed of 4 + 4 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 2. In addition, the eight has an extraordinary relation to heavenly harmony. Moreover, eight is composed of the prime number 7 and the monad 1. So we are dealing with the Pythagorean number system here. Macrobius also says that for Pythagoreans eight is the symbol of aequitas, that is, equity, balance, etc.

Chapter 6 offers similar speculations about the number seven: 4 + 3 = 7; 4 x 7 = 28. Humans have seven organs, etc.

In chapter 7 Macrobius discusses a significant afterthought: "if you escape the treacherous hands of your relatives." In his opinion this is curious: why does the speaker not know for sure if it will happen or not? Disturbing prophecies are always ambiguous, but they contain correlations that can lead to the path of truth, if the interpretation is made wisely and perceptively. The dream alludes to what may happen, not what will. We can escape such a fate if we are prudent, but to accomplish it we need our mind and skill as antagonists in the effort. One can appease the gods by sacrifices, for instance.

We see from this passage that Macrobius interprets it in exactly the same way that we would. The dream shows possibilities; it is ambiguous with regard to the future. When we deal with dream interpretation, we will incline toward fatalism. Human freedom no longer seems to exist, because everything is predetermined anyway. But the dream is ambiguous and ambivalent with regard to the future. It shows possibilities, and we just might succeed in averting a threatening fate and "placate the gods" by intense devotion or conscious working through.

Let me remind you of the mountain climber's dreams that Professor Jung once related. The dreamer made light of them and then indeed fell to his death. So we see that a dream can also warn us.

Furthermore, chapter 10 holds a certain interest. Scipio asks in the dream if his father and the dead in general are still living. Macrobius outlines the whole ancient view of the underworld and continued existence after death, in particular Platonic ideas: the body is the grave of the soul (Plato). I will give only a short sketch of the Platonic doctrine of the soul. Before birth the soul is a sphere, that is, it is still a unity because opposites do not yet exist. (We also find a parallel in the Chinese sphere.)

Then this sphere proceeds to birth, to incarnation. It then loses its spherical shape, that is, its unity. The soul wanders on the Milky Way from heaven to earth. The Milky Way intersects the astrological zodiac in Cancer and Capricorn, the two gates of the sun. The first gate, Cancer, is the gate of man, while the second gate, Capricorn, is the gate of the gods. Through the first gate souls descend to earth, through the second they return. Macrobius says about the Milky Way that milk is an infant's first food. According to Pythagoras it is the first step of descent, the first impulse toward earthly embodiment. As the sphere descends, the monad becomes a dyad. It enters into the world, the body, the forest, into hyle (substance, matter). According to Plato, it gets "drunk." In this drunken state the soul flows further downward and receives specific characteristics from each planet.

These ideas are taken over by Macrobius and formulated with the help of the corresponding dream text of Scipio (cf. figure):

The first of these circles is the celestial circle (zodiac, fixed stars), which encompasses all the others, itself being the highest god. The eternal, rotating orbits of the stars are attached to it. Below are the seven circles (planetary orbits), which move backwards, in a direction opposite to the rotation of the heaven.

(Then follows a list of the planets, starting with the farthest out: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon.) All that is underneath this is mortal and transient, except for souls, the gods' gift to humankind. Everything above the moon is eternal. For earth's globe is immobile and the lowest of all. All matter is drawn toward it by its gravitational force.

The dream of Scipio tells the following about the soul:

For humans were created on condition of their being the guardians of the globe, which you see in the middle of this temple, and which is called earth. Man has been given a soul from those eternal fires that you call the heavenly bodies and stars. They are round and spherical, animated by divine spirits. They complete their circles, paths of marvelous velocity.

Macrobius remarks that Cicero uses the word animus in both the correct and incorrect senses, because animus is mind and reason (mens), and no one doubts that it is more divine than the anima. Animus, however, often means anima. On the one hand, we have a mind, animus, originating in those eternal fires we share with heaven and the stars; on the other hand, we have a spirit, anima, imprisoned in the body, cut off from the divine mens.

At the end of this discussion Macrobius summarizes the concept of the soul in different philosophers:

Plato calls it "that which moves itself"
Xenocrates "the self-moving number"
Aristotle "entelechy," i.e., something carrying its purpose (its goal)
within itself
Pythagoras and Philolaus "harmony"
Posidonius "idea"
Asclepiades "concurrent exercitation of the five senses"
Hippocrates "subtle pneuma that is distributed throughout the whole
body"
Heraclides Ponticus "light"
Heraclitus "spark of the stellar essence"
Zeno "condensed spirit in the body" (a spirit concentrated in the
body)
Democritus "spirit between the atoms, so mobile that it penetrates every
body"
Critolaus "originating in the quintessence"
Hipparchus "fire"
Anaximenes "air"
Empedocles and Critias "blood"
Parmenides "originating in earth and fire"
Epicurus "a kind of mixture of fire, air, and spirit."

For all these philosophers, the soul is immaterial and immortal.

There follow further discussions based on the dream, about astrology, stars and fixed stars, the sun and its various names, and finally the harmony of the spheres and music.

Scipio contemplates suicide in the dream, because life would be only the "death of the soul," but this is denied to him, because only the gods may free us from the earth. If we leave this life by suicide, we will not be purified, and our souls will float around the earth.

In the twelfth chapter of Book II, Scipio writes that he has heard a dream full of wisdom. First he is told the hour in which he will die through treachery. Thus he learns to despise transient life. To encourage him after this frightening message, he is shown that he will live after death as a wise and good citizen. When he wants to commit suicide, his natural father Paulus appears and prevents him. Thus his soul is temperate in hope and fear, but capable of divine contemplation.

(Continues...)

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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Princeton University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0691159459
• ISBN 13: 9780691159454
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Herausgeber: Peck John, Jung Lorenz, Meyer-Grass Maria
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar