Dreams, by: Carl Gustav Jung

Young distinguishes between the "receptive" function of dreams and their "compensatory" function, and there are two types of compensation, negative and positive, as Young assumes the existence of a self-regulation system within the psyche, which makes an instantaneous adjustment to unilateral tendencies or a balancing of the disturbed equilibrium. Young was often asked: "If dreams compensate for all these compensations, why are they not understandable?" The answer he provides in this book is: "A dream is a natural event, and nature does not show a tendency to give its fruits for free or to be gentle with human expectations." As for the receptive function of dreams, Young says, "It is an unconscious anticipation of upcoming conscious achievements, somewhat like initial training, a rough sketch, or a pre-drawn plan... The receptive function of dreams sometimes far exceeds the functional connections we anticipate consciously." Overall, this book "Dreams" is an invitation to understand our dreams, explore our unconscious, and then engage in mutual absorption between consciousness and the unconscious. "Absorption" at Young's does not mean the dominance of consciousness over the unconscious, thereby reducing or distorting it, but rather an reciprocal penetration between both. Consciousness is conscious and unconscious awareness, and by unifying feeling with the unconscious, the "self" is realized, and individuation is achieved, which is the most important goal of Jungian psychoanalysis. Pages: 383