Aspects of the Dream

Jung teaches that dreams have both a compensatory and a prospective aspect.

“But when the individual deviates from the norm in the sense that his conscious attitude is unadapted both objectively and subjectively, the – under normal conditions – merely compensatory function of the unconscious becomes a guiding, prospective function capable of leading the conscious attitude in quite a different direction…” Carl Jung, General Aspects of Dream Psychology, CW VIII, par. 495.

When working with a dream it’s useful to consider how the same images might be expressing either of these perspectives.  Often the very thing that people will term crazy or odd about a dream is that it points to something that consciousness is missing, and in the effort to render an image of what is not understood, the results seem preposterous.  But only at first.

The compensatory aspect of a dream can be thought of as the unconscious attempting to provide a counter-balance to the conscious standpoint. For instance, if one is getting too self absorbed, a dream might demonstrate this by an overly extroverted scenario.

The prospective aspect attempts to provide a plausible outcome to a situation that the conscious standpoint seems to be essentially blind toward. When people respond to the prophetic nature of dreams, it’s this uncanny ability of the unconscious to sense the full dynamics at play in a given scenario that allude consciousness.

In a superficial, superstitious way, this is what folks refer to when they judge a dream as good or bad and let it shape their attitude towards the following day. This common reaction to dreams misses that the dream is actually referring to specifics in the dreamers life.  Without taking the time to ask questions of the images, this approach only measures the emotional reaction to the dream as it either promotes or detracts from conscious desires. When such a reactionary practice is in play, it’s important to ask “but what is the dream saying?”