Jung's and Freud's contributions to dream interpretation: a comparison

Abstract

According to Jung, the dream is a direct expression of the unconscious, but gives us insight into our subjective states and conscious knowledge. Unlike Freud, Jung interprets dreams as an aid to an individual's future teleological activities. Jung emphasizes the dreamer's understanding of his dreams and contradicts the doctrine of resistance to the analyst's interpretations. Jung also declares that the analyst must be ready to evolve an entirely new theory of interpretation for every dream, thus stressing concentration upon the patient's dream images themselves rather than the content of the 'free associations'. The images of each unique patient's dream stems from archetypes of the collective unconscious.