Page 12 - April 2025
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The Compensatory Nature of Our Dreams
Carl Jung believed that dreams are Additionally, Our Dreams Can Help Us:
psychic facts and offer us an important
window into the unconscious. By • Expose Repressed Feelings – If you
revealing hidden aspects of the self, they avoid expressing your authentic anger,
are guiding our overall development. frustration or fears about a relationship,
Freud called dreams ‘the royal road to your dreams may dramatize these
the unconscious’ and Jung called them emotions in intense or symbolic ways.
‘self-portraits of the psychic life-
process.’ Unlike Freud, who primarily • Show Unconscious Desires – A dream
viewed dreams as expressions of about an ex, a stranger, or an idealized
repressed desires, Jung believed dreams partner could be highlighting for us our
played a compensatory role, balancing unmet emotional or psychological needs.
the conscious and unconscious mind.
• Reveal Self-Sabotage – Dreams can
“Consequently the dreams stand in strict expose ways you might be unconsciously
contrast to his conscious behavior. They undermining intimacy or avoiding the
move along a progressive line and take healing that can come from vulnerability.
the part of the educator. They clearly
reveal their special function. This • Reveal Warnings — Dreams can tell you
function I have called compensation. The things you cannot possibly know such as
unconscious progressiveness and the warnings of future events.
conscious regressiveness together form a
pair of opposites which, as it were, keeps •Give Us a Direct Experience of the
the scales balanced.” Transcendent —If we work with our dreams,
— Carl Jung, Two Essays in Analytical then we are working with God, the Self within
Psychology, par 182 us. These messages from our divine center are
giving us direction and guidance as to what the
As a compensatory function, dreams help Self wants from us.
us see what we ignore, suppress or remain
unconscious of in waking life. From a Dreams also strive to regulate and
Jungian perspective, they can reveal the modify the effects of our split-off parts,
shadow — the parts of ourselves we reject our complexes — such as our father and
or fail to acknowledge. mother complexes.
12 - My Indigo Sun
