This essay was written originally in December of 1996, as a theoretical dissertation for the Clinical Psychology Training Programme co-ordinated by Dr. Miriam Freitas, Dipl. CG Jung Institut - Zurich, and Claudia Perrone and Nadia Santos, Psychologists, which was part of the graduation course of Psychology at the Federal University of RGS.

INTRODUCTION

This essay was written originally in December of 1996, as a theoretical dissertation for the Clinical Psychology Training Programme co-ordinated by Dr. Miriam Freitas, Dipl. CG Jung Institut - Zurich, and Claudia Perrone and Nadia Santos, Psychologists, which was part of the graduation course of Psychology at the Federal University of RGS. The version presented here has been slightly modified - examples from the case material of a 28-year-old female patient are omitted, for instance, as well as certain paragraphs, aiming for a more concise presentation.

The initial purpose is thus to provide a modest and general panoramic view on the Jungian thought concerning dream analysis. In this sense, the concepts that are located around dreams (what they are and represent), the analysis techniques and related theoretical views necessary for objective understanding are discussed, in order to connect the practical and theoretical fields in a cohesive manner.

Jung considers the dream fundamentally as a natural expression of the unconscious psychic process. It provides an X-ray of the unconscious, so to speak, as it is - as a matrix of symbols, it presents its dynamic, source of all psychic processes, in symbolic form, with its own peculiar language. In this sense, the validity of dream analysis depends on the realisation of the unconscious process (the acquisition of awareness over it)- awareness already considered as therapeutic by Freud.