PDA

View Full Version : Dream and myth: the foundation for depth psychology


coberst
09-30-2007, 04:42 AM
Dream and myth: the foundation for depth psychology

Freud hypothesized that dreams were a means for establishing a universal method for studying the human psyche. He felt that dreams provided a means for studying the psyche in a manner similar to that used to study the physiological characteristics of the body. In studying dreams and myth he theorized that one could make comparative interpretation of a universality of symbolism.

“It was the insight that, just as dreams express the unconscious of individuals, myths express the unconscious of the human species as a whole…the symbolism of myth expresses the processes of the psyche in their quintessential form in contrast to the more personal contents of dreams deriving from merely individual experiences.”

Freud thought that dreams expressed the unconscious domain of the individual. He furthermore considered that there existed a relationship between myths and dreams. Dreams represented the individual’s unconscious response and myth represented societies’ unconscious fundamental form of the social psyche in symbolic form.

Freud theorized that “by deciphering the symbolism of myths…he would be able to apply the general principle to the particular case of the individual personality by relating dreams to myths…it was this that became the foundation for depth psychology.”


Quotes from “The Death and Rebirth of Psychology”—Ira Progoff.

Frogger
09-30-2007, 09:37 AM
What can be said for dreams and myths can also be said for fairy tales. Fairy tales are reflections of the thoughts, hopes and fears of a people.

Just look at fairy tales like Cinderella where a young person overcomes adversity in order to triumph. Little Red Riding Hood is the same as is Hansel and Gretel, people overcoming events over which they have no control either through luck and good fortune or the actions of kindly strangers.

Fairy tales are the younger brothers and sisters of myth. and there is very little difference between Beowulf and Sleeping Beauty.

coberst
09-30-2007, 12:55 PM
What can be said for dreams and myths can also be said for fairy tales. Fairy tales are reflections of the thoughts, hopes and fears of a people.

Just look at fairy tales like Cinderella where a young person overcomes adversity in order to triumph. Little Red Riding Hood is the same as is Hansel and Gretel, people overcoming events over which they have no control either through luck and good fortune or the actions of kindly strangers.

Fairy tales are the younger brothers and sisters of myth. and there is very little difference between Beowulf and Sleeping Beauty.

I disagree. Fairy tales are the created fiction of a conscious mind; dreams are the creation of the unconscious mind and are the means that psychology has found for examining the unconscious mind. I do not know enough about myth to agree or disagree about that matter.

Frogger
09-30-2007, 08:44 PM
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I wasn't comparing fairy tales to dreams. I was comparing them to myths. Myths are basically fairy tales for societies.

Most people recognize Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm as the first to really study fairy tales. I have a copy of their book, Kinder- und Hausmärchen that I received as a gift in 1945. The title when translated is Children's and Househole Tales. Fairy tales are basically household tales, tales told from generation to generation in an attempt to either explain some phenomenum or to inculcate a moral standard. Many are quasi-mythic in their origins.They reach back far into the recesses of a particular society, usually so far back that no one can tell when they were first told.

The fairy tales I am referring to are not the modern day fairy tales, made up stories whose sole purpose is to entertain children. Older fairy tales were told more for their teaching function than their entertainment function.That is why so many of them are far too bloodthirsty for today's taste.

tucker58
10-17-2007, 10:00 PM
I disagree. Fairy tales are the created fiction of a conscious mind; dreams are the creation of the unconscious mind and are the means that psychology has found for examining the unconscious mind. I do not know enough about myth to agree or disagree about that matter.

Sorry Coberest, but Fairy Tales are real. They just are you know :)

tuck