Dream and myth: the foundation for depth psychology

Freud hypothesized that dreams were a means for establishing a universal method for studying the human psyche. He felt that dreams provided a means for studying the psyche in a manner similar to that used to study the physiological characteristics of the body. In studying dreams and myth he theorized that one could make comparative interpretation of a universality of symbolism.

“It was the insight that, just as dreams express the unconscious of individuals, myths express the unconscious of the human species as a whole…the symbolism of myth expresses the processes of the psyche in their quintessential form in contrast to the more personal contents of dreams deriving from merely individual experiences.”

Freud thought that dreams expressed the unconscious domain of the individual. He furthermore considered that there existed a relationship between myths and dreams. Dreams represented the individual’s unconscious response and myth represented societies’ unconscious fundamental form of the social psyche in symbolic form.

Freud theorized that “by deciphering the symbolism of myths…he would be able to apply the general principle to the particular case of the individual personality by relating dreams to myths…it was this that became the foundation for depth psychology.”


Quotes from “The Death and Rebirth of Psychology”—Ira Progoff.