Drømmetydning ifølge Freud og Jung

Abstract

This bachelor thesis strives to answer the following question: How can the dream theories of Freud and Jung contribute to the analysis of a dream, and can the theories be used to understand present-day problems?

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, dreams fulfill unconscious wishes. They must be distorted to get past the part of the psyche that exerts censorship. Freud finds that revealing un- conscious wishes through the method of free association allows one to understand the psycho- logical complexes of the dreamer.

According to Carl Jung, the purpose of dreams is to compensate for conscious attitudes that do not fit well with the person’s unconscious state. The effects of dream compensation can be enhanced through analysis. Jung does not find that the dream is hiding anything, and he therefore thinks that dream analysis should stick close to the dream using limited association.

In this thesis, I apply the methods of Freud and Jung in the analysis of one of my own dreams. If understood through Freud’s theory, my dream fulfills several wishes, e.g. the wish of being safe and in control, as well as the wish of doing well and doing what is right.

Understood through Jung’s theory, my dream compensates for my fear of pregnancy and birth, my feelings of loss of control and insecurity, and my fear of not being good enough. Through limited association, motherhood is found to be a central theme in my dream. Addition- ally, the Mother archetype seems to be present in my dream.

My dream analysis has several limitations. For example, I may have exerted resistance against my unconscious wishes.

Freud’s and Jung’s theories are limited by the times they were written in. Freud’s theory can be seen as solving a historical task posed by the suppression of sexuality. Jung’s theory is affected by the gender biases of Romanticism. These limitations affect my own dream analysis.

Psychoanalysis is often criticized for being unscientific because it takes the unconscious as its object and therefore must use different methods than the empirical sciences.

Thoughts related to Covid-19 are present in my dream, and new research finds that Covid- 19 is affecting people’s dreams. The interpretation of my own dream using Freud’s and Jung’s methods shows that Covid-19 in my dream may be related to my overriding panic anxiety prob- lem, which has affected me since childhood.

Bedømmelse: 12