Mythology and Dreams
Dreams and myths form part of the most common concepts surrounding human beings. Every human being has his or her dreams, which are usually the products of the unconscious. Unlike dreams, myths are not private, and they arise due to the influence of things like; religious texts, literature, rituals, and so forth. It is due to this that a myth can be connected to a given origin, such as culture. This argument means that people develop myths based on what they have heard or learned from people, society, and the surrounding at large. Myths and dreams are the primary concepts that attempt to explain the concept of consciousness and the unconsciousness of an individual. Both myths and dreams have a background of unconsciousness depths, such as the well of souls. Various psychologists have, in the past, risen to illustrate different concepts of dreams and myths. Some of the vital psychologists recognized include; Joseph Campbell, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and so forth. Freud is, however, regarded as the father of the study on mythology and dreams. For instance, he presented the dream theory and offered a precise interpretation of a dream. On the other hand, Jung, who was a student to Freud, had different explanations of the importance of unconscious from Freud’s. Moreover, modern psychologists present an idea that human beings have a set of unconscious experiences that form essential aspects of human development. The peace provides essential research on myths, dreams, and consciousness based on my dreams.
First, regarding the unconscious, Jung argued that unconscious contained both personal feelings and collective arguments of humankind (Kaufmann, 2017). Besides, while examining the structure of the psyche, Jung divides the human mind into three sections. The three sections are; personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, and conscious ego. Conscious ego consists of impressions caused by internal and external events as well as self-awareness. Personal unconscious refers to the impressions that have become unconscious because the conscious mind is no longer focusing on them. Lastly, collective unconsciousness helps to store images and ideas for all humankind. Conversely, Freud argued that the unconscious mind dealt with past experiences. As such, the collective unconscious presents the most considerable difference between Freud’s argument and Jung’s.
Additionally, Freud and Jung also elaborated on the concepts of mythology and dreams. They both believed that dreams and myths are were expressions of the collective unconscious. They think so because both dreams and myths express vital ideas that form human species as a whole. For instance, dreams and myths portray the wisdom bestowed to human beings, either through spiritual processes or evolution. To add, myths share a significant number of common elements. First, the unanimity of myths in human beings is a result of human beings having a uniform mind and the manifestation of the mind. Likewise, the idea of myths having similarities is seen by looking back at the original community Indo-European, who often shared the same stories because of being in a common culture. Therefore, myths are a result of the human unconscious that usually arises from the sharing of experiences. At the same time, dreams are everyday implications of the reality of occurrences that are common for all human beings.
Furthermore, Freud presents a model of view for the human mind. According to the model, the human mind can be divided into three levels, conscious level, subconscious level, and unconscious level. The conscious level is the one in which an individual has thoughts and perceptions. The subconscious level is the one in which the mind has memories and stored knowledge. Lastly, the unconscious level is the one in which the mind has; violent motives, fears, immoral urges, shameful experiences, selfish needs, and so on.
Moreover, Jung also focused on the aspect of images. The images are referred to as archetypes. Archetypes represent inherited, and cumulative images which are created by the experiences people meet as they interact with the surrounding. The archetypes indicate patterns of life that are best understood when manifested in the conscious human mind (Jung, 1990). This is to say, that human beings can witness the effects of the archetypes, but they cannot have a direct experience of the archetypes.
As I have been growing, I have had several dreams in life. One of the most exciting dreams I have ever had is about golf. I rose from a local league to become a world champion. I defeated the top-rated players to win the world cup trophy. The whole world, especially my country people, celebrated my victory. The dreams had several instances, but the most memorable part is the time I was on a flight to the country where the competitions were to be held. The most exciting part of my dream was to become my boss in an area that most people had already been defeated.
Lastly, the dream contained some undecipherable and confusing images. For instance, some aspects of the dream cannot connect. The image of how I was selected to represent my country is still unclear. The dream had various characters such as the hero, mentor and everyman (Jung, 2019). I was the hero, and my coach was the mentor while the audience were labeled as the everyman.
References
Jung, C. G. (1990). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 1959. Trans. RFC Hull. New York: Princeton UP.
Kaufmann, W. (2017). Freud, Alder, and Jung: Discovering the Mind. Routledge.
Jung, C. G. (2019). Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process: Notes of CG Jung’s Seminars on Wolfgang Pauli’s Dreams. Princeton University Press.