The use of dream analysis in psychotherapy is still a widely debated issue. According to Jung’s theories, however, it is a scientifically valid and justifiable practice, because he considered dreams to be a direct expression of unconscious psychic activity.
While the importance of conscious experience is never challenged, the validity of unconscious events is often called into question, even though these are a natural part of life. We spend much of our lives in a state of unconsciousness, and dreams are the most precise and clear expression of this state. Dreams are able to represent everything: inescapable truths, philosophical beliefs, illusions, all kinds of fantasies, memories, plans, expectations, irrational experiences, even telepathic visions, and who knows what else? They provide a true picture of a person's psychological state, expressing an involuntary psychic process that is not controlled by consciousness. They are not defined by a therapist's conjecture, or by the patient's view of how things should be: they simply tell us how things are. For this reason, Jung views dreams as actual facts, which are invaluable in diagnosing a patient's neurosis.
Dreams undeniably provide insight into the most secret part of a patient's inner life, and reveal hidden traits of their personality. If dreams stay in the shadows of the unconscious, they will affect the patient's conscious life and manifest as neurosis, so the only effective cure is to treat the unconscious mind.
A single dream can rarely be interpreted with absolute certainty, so we should attach greater importance to analysing a series of dreams, as this will undoubtedly lead to a more accurate diagnosis, because subsequent dreams help us to correct mistakes made in previous interpretations, and it is easier to recognise recurring themes and patterns. In any case, the therapist must be aware that they are not infallible in their ability to interpret dreams. This must also be made clear to the patients: if they are lulled into a false sense of excessive security as to any given therapist's ability to analyse dreams, they will lose all sense of reality, and will take longer to heal. In truth, it is not crucial for the doctor to have a complete understanding of the patient's dream; what really matters is that the patient understands their own dream and its impact on their conscious state and neurosis.
