STUDY GUIDE FOR MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS

Study Guide for exam on
MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS

compensation: when a dreamer has a recurring dream from childhood to adulthood, it corrects the ego's one sided view on life or reality. the function of dreams is compensatory, or complementary. they force us to pay attention to the areas we neglect.

sign vs. symbol: signs are denotative and have one meaning. they are less than the concepts they represent. symbols are natural and spontaneous. they are connotative and can never be fully explained because they have so many possibilities and meanings. symbols are much more vague and are often unknown or hidden from us.

recurring dreams: dreams compensate for defects in our attitude toward life. recurring dreams are messages that need to get through to the dreamer. jung also added that they can anticipate future events of importance.

free association vs. amplification: jung believed that free association tended to lead the dreamer away from the dream while amplification honored the precise expression of the dream. dreams contain meaning, and a unique message can be found. he says, "i wanted to keep as close as possible to the dream itself, and to exclude all the irrelevant ideas and associations that it might evoke."

"dream books": these are ready-made interpretations of dreams. jung states that "it is plain foolishness to believe in ready-made systematic guides to dream interpretation, as if one could simply buy a reference book and look up a particular symbol. no dream symbol can be separated from the individual who dreams it, and there is no definite or straightforward interpretation of any dream. each individual varies so much in the way that his unconscious complements or compensates his conscious mind that it is impossible to be sure how far dreams and their symbols can be classified at all." however, there are certain motifs that are common.

the dream as source for creative ideas: dreams communicate to us through symbolism. both new thoughts as well as old ones can emerge from the unconscious. everything new is a recombination of things that already exist, and dreams do this.

the collective unconscious: this is the part of the psyche that retains and transmits the common psychological inheritance of mankind, chiefly religious symbols. it can be thought of as universal archetypal images that we are programmed to respond to.

the shadow: the opposite manifestation of the conscious ego. the opposite of consciousness. it "contains the hidden, repressed, and unfavorable aspects of the personality." however, it also contains the good qualities of normal instincts and creative impulses.

function of the Hero myth: as a general rule, the ego needs strengthening. the ego needs to differentiate itself from the parental archetypes. the main function of the hero myth is that of growing up and leaving your parents.

animus and anima: animus and anima are the psychological bisexuality, both the masculine and feminine in each of us. the animus is the male aspect in the female, and the anima is the female aspect in the male.

relationship between Hero myth and initiation rites: the hero myth contains the action of the hero pursuing the journey onward. in the initiation rites, you surrender yourself to initiation. the key idea to this is weaning kids away from their parents.

symbolism of Beauty and the Beast: this deals with the girl's relationship with her father and the need for her to break away from her relationship with her father. she "redeems herself and her image of the masculine from the forces of repression, bringing to consciousness her capacity to trust her love as something that combines spirit and nature in the best sense of the words."

symbols of transcendence: the symbols that represent man's striving to attain his goals. they provide the means by which the contents of the unconscious can enter the conscious mind and are the active expression of those contents. examples include the bird, trickster, shaman, lizards, snakes, etc.

synchronicity: this is a meaningful coincidence of outer and inner events that are not themselves causally connected.

Self vs. ego: Self is the totality of the psyche while ego is consciousness. ego is the smaller part, the one we are conscious of. it consists of what we are aware of and what we usually refer to when we say "I" while the Self is the much bigger piece and includes the archetypes, anima and animus, shadow, etc.

individuation: a process of the unfolding growth of the self. a maturation of the self. can be tracked through introspection and dreams. jung says of the process of individuation that all dreams are relevant and are all parts of one great web of psychological factors. on the whole, they seem to follow an arrangement or pattern.