Dream Symbolism and Archetypes

I have a book called "Freud's Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis" that has several chapters dedicated to dream symbolism. It's Freud and not Jung, so its similar but very different.

Here is a website that contains some of the key symbols.

Naturally, most of it is related to sex. Images such as horse riding, walking through doors, going down stairs, according to Freud all of which are related to the act of sexual intercourse.

Some more that I dimly remember:

Images such as firearms, swords, lamposts are all related to the male genatalia. Houses (especially those with ivy on the outside), doors, holes and cupboards represent the female genatalia.

The loss of teeth represent a feeling of loss of sexual potency. Airplanes represent death.

Personally I think a lot of Freud's work (and to a lesser extent Jung) is too focused on sex. It's natural that the victorians/early 20th century would be so fixated on sex, it being such a taboo public topic. Perhaps in this day and age, where sex is a topic everyone talks about, but death is a real taboo dream symbolism has changed to reflect other things. I think a lot of dreams (at least my dreams) are simple attempts of the brain to categorise the things that have happened during the day.

However, they did both hit on the importance of the unconscious mind, something that we realise now is one of the main driving forces for humans.

You might do best with a book or two [but I'll scout around the web too when I have time].

Are you interested in anyone past Jung? Jung's the Man here, of course, but there are Jungians, too, and other schools of thought.

I love this stuff Any particular symbols you have in mind?

Exir said:

Thanks Kurtz. I've never been much of a Freud fan, in part because his theory of dream is too boring for me as a storyteller It's good to expand my knowledge of dreams, though. The link you gave me is quite informative, thanks.

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Freud is a pretty dense writer, but I think he knows a good story when he sees one. On the other hand you could read all of Jung and never approach the intensity or incisiveness of Freud at his best.

Gods in Everyman and Goddesses in Everywoman are the first books that come to my mind. They are written by a Jungian psychiatrist, Jean Shinoda Bolen. She delves into specific deities of Greek myth and deconstructs them into archetypal figures using Jung's framework. I'd highly recommend them, especially if your local library carries them. ETA: Her book The Tao of Psychology may be a good match for you as well.

Here are a few sites I bookmarked awhile back - I haven't visited them in a long time, though, so I have no idea how useful they are, or if the links are even still good.
http://www.halexandria.org/dward373.htm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html

Good luck!

Robert Bly's Iron John, The Maiden King (with Marion Woodman) and A Little Book on the Human Shadow might be interesting reading for you.

Also Marie-Louise von Franz studied with Jung and wrote a lot about archetypes and fairy tales.

Then of course there's Joseph Campbell.

Higgins said:

Freud is a pretty dense writer, but I think he knows a good story when he sees one. On the other hand you could read all of Jung and never approach the intensity or incisiveness of Freud at his best.

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Not on dreams, imho. His best work there was really Jung's.

eta: [Loving the links, y'all, btw ]

Here's a good site for basic dream interpretation. Not sure if this is what you are looking for (specifically) but hopefully it will be of some use:
http://www.dreammoods.com/

Just for another perspective.