The Theory of PsychoanalysisJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Science
The Theory of Psychoanalysis
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Neuroses; Psychoanalysis; Psychology, Pathological; Sex
At the third interview the little girl related a dream she had had when
she was five years old, and by which she was greatly impressed. She
says, “I’ll never forget this dream.” The dream runs as follows: “_I am
in a wood with my little brother and we are looking for strawberries.
Then a wolf came and jumped at me. I took to a staircase, the wolf after
me. I fall down and the wolf bites my leg. I awoke in terror._”
Before we go into the associations given by our little patient, I will
try to form an arbitrary opinion about the possible content of the
dream, and then compare our result afterwards with the associations
given by the child. The beginning of the dream reminds us of the
well-known German fairy-tale of Little Red-Ridinghood, which is, of
course, known to the child. The wolf ate the grandmother first, then
took her shape, and afterwards ate Little Red-Ridinghood. But the hunter
killed the wolf, cut open the belly and Little Red-Ridinghood sprang out
safe and sound. This motive is found in a great many fairy-tales,
widespread over the whole world, and it is the motive of the biblical
story of Jonah. The original significance is astro-mythological: the sun
is swallowed up by the sea, and in the morning is born again out of the
water. Of course, the whole of astro-mythology is at the root but
psychology, unconscious psychology, projected on to the heavens, for
myths have never been and are never made consciously, but arise from
man’s unconscious. For this reason, we sometimes find that marvellous,
striking similarity or identity in the forms of myths, even among races
that have been separated from each other since eternity as it were. This
explains the universal dissemination of the symbol of the cross,
perfectly independent of Christianity, of which America, as is well
known, furnishes us especially interesting instances. It is impossible
to agree, that myths have been made to explain meteorological or
astronomical processes. Myths are, first of all, manifestations of
unconscious currents, similar to dreams.[12] These currents are caused
by the libido in its unconscious forms. The material which comes to the
surface is infantile material, hence, phantasies connected with the
incest-complex. Without difficulty we can find in all the so-called
sun-myths infantile theories about generation, childbirth and incestuous
relations. In the fairy-tale of Little Red-Ridinghood, we find the
phantasy that the mother has to eat something which is similar to a
child, and that the child is born by cutting open the mother’s body.
This phantasy is one of the most universal, to be found everywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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