Music in dreams and the emergence of the self

Abstract

This paper deals with the presence and possible 'meaning' of music in dreams. The author explores a possible meaning of music as the most fundamental human symbolic experience, which directly points to the emergence of the Self from the primal union mystique with the Great Mother. The relationships between acoustic and visual experiences are taken into account as two basic human forms of coming into existence, although wholly different from each other. The role of music in dreams seems to be that of the most direct representation of the emerging Self in its pure, pre-representational form. Therefore, when music appears in dreams, providing there is the activation of an emotional tone, all other elements - visual and verbal - should be considered as the expression of the sense to which the music is pointing. A clinical example is described in order to better express the author's opinions. © 2009, The Society of Analytical Psychology.