In "The Spiritual problem of Modern Man" Jung writes of :

". . . .the mysterious truth that the spirit is the life of the body seen from within, and the body the outward manifestation of the life of the spirit - the two being really one . . ."   

It seems to me that Jungian psychotherapy is partly directed towards some experience of this unity.

 

Elsewhere Jung writes of the changes that have taken place in our inner, psychic, situation as a consequence of our social and genetic evolution:

"..but since we have a body it is indispensable that we exist also as an animal, and each time we invent a new increase of consciousness we have to put a new link in the chain that binds us to the animal, till finally it will become so long that complications will surely ensue."

A great deal of psychotherapy might be seen as an attempt to redress such complications.   One could imagine that it is the length of the chain, in we humans, that can make us so susceptible to the vagaries and hazards of our upbringing and life experience.

 

Both Jung and Freud considered the study of dreams to be a vital part of their therapeutic approach. However Jung, unlike Freud, did not think that dreams purposely concealed their meaning:

"Dreams are neither deliberate nor arbitrary fabrications; they are natural phenomena which are nothing other than what they pretend to be. They do not deceive, they do not lie, they do not distort or disguise. . . . They are invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand".

But we can look at our dreams, and take them seriously, and begin to try to get some knowledge and understanding of that part of ourselves which is expressing itself through them. This engagement can very much increase our understanding of ourselves. It can also help to restore a living contact with the deeper parts of our nature - often dimmed out or sidelined among the stresses and anxieties of our life.

 

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