Marie-Louise von Franz - Dreams: A Study of the Dreams of Jung, Descartes, Socrates, and Other Historical Figures

Von Franz is probably Carl Jungs most important disciple, and her work fully embodies the essence of his teachings. But she is, in her own right, an original and provocative thinker, as manifested by her many astonishingly perceptive books.

Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone

ABOUT THE BOOK

These collected essays by the distinguished psychoanalyst Marie-Louise von Franz offer fascinating insights into the study of dreams, not only psychologically, but also from historical, religious, and philosophical points of view. In the first two chapters, the author offers general explanations of the nature of dreams and their use in analysis. She examines how dreams can be used in the development of self-knowledge and describes how C. G. Jung worked with his own dreams, and the fateful ways in which they were entwined with the course of his life.

The rest of the book records and interprets dreams of historical personages: Socrates, Descartes, Themistocles and Hannibal, and the mothers of Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and Saint Dominic. Connections are revealed between the personal and family histories of the dreamers and individual and collective mores of their times. Dreams includes writings long out of print or never before available in English translation.

MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ (19151998) was the foremost student of C. G. Jung, with whom she worked closely from 1934 until his death in 1961. A founder of the C. G. Jung Institute of Zurich, she published widely on subjects including alchemy, dreams, fairy tales, personality types, and psychotherapy.

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A C. G. JUNG FOUNDATION BOOK
Published in Association with Daimon Verlag, Einsiedeln, Switzerland

The C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology is dedicated to helping men and women grow in conscious awareness of the psychological realities in themselves and society, find healing and meaning in their lives and greater depth in their relationships, and live in response to their discovered sense of purpose. It welcomes the public to attend its lectures, seminars, films, symposia, and workshops and offers a wide selection of books for sale through its bookstore. The Foundation also publishes Quadrant, a semiannual journal, and books on Analytical Psychology and related subjects. For information about Foundation programs or membership, please write to the C. G. Jung Foundation, 28 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016.

DREAMS

MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ

Foreword by Robert Hinshaw

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2014

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

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Originally published by Daimon Verlag, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, under the title Trume, 1985, Daimon Verlag.

Translations of The Hidden Source of Self-Knowledge, How C. G. Jung Lived with His Dreams, The Dream of Monica, Mother of Saint Augustine, and The Dreams of the Mother of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Mother of Saint Dominic 1991 by Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Translation of The Dream of Socrates 1954, 1982 by Spring Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

The Dream of Descartes, translated by Andrea Dykes and Elizabeth Welsh. From Timeless Documents of the Soul, edited by Helmuth-Jacobsohn. Copyright 1970 by Northwestern University Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Library of Congress catalogues the hardcover edition of this book as follows:

Franz, Marie-Louise von, 1915

[Trume. English]

Dreams / Marie-Louise Von Franz: foreword by Robert Hinshaw. p. cm. Translation of: Trume. A C. G. Jung Foundation bookIncludes bibliographical references.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2980-0

ISBN 0-87773-901-3

ISBN 1-57062-035-0

1. DreamsHistory. 2. DreamsCase studies. 3. Psychoanalysis. 4. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 18751961. I. Title.

BF1078.F6514 1990 90-55063

154.63dc20 CIP

CONTENTS

Marie-Louise von Franz is one of the last of the close circle of C. G. Jungs associates still alive today. She collaborated with Jung from 1934 until his death and subsequently became an internationally respected authority in her own right. Her numerous published works on psychological subjects and a variety of interviews conducted in recent years reveal her extraordinarily far-ranging experience and lively wit. The seventy-six-year-old analyst has also distinguished herself as an outstanding lecturer and written dozens of papers for journals, anthologies, and congresses. Unfortunately, however, many of these articles and lecture manuscripts from years past have dropped out of sight; journals and proceedings go out of print and lecture notes are usually not accessible anyway.

The present volume is the first in a series of collections intended to assemble all such material into various thematic categories and make it available in book form to interested readers. Each volume will be devoted to a general theme, such as dreams, psyche and matter, and psychotherapy.

The theme of this first volume of the series, which was published in German in 1985 on the occasion of the authors seventieth birthday, is dreams. In the first two chapters, Marie-Louise von Franz offers general explanations of the nature of dreams and the roles they can play in the course of analysis. In the first, which originally appeared as a paper in the Schleswig-Holsteinisches rzteblatt (1973), she addresses the question of the development of self-knowledge, which can accompany an attitude of taking dreams seriously. The next chapter describes the way in which Jung concerned himself with his dreams and points out fateful ways in which they were intertwined with the course of his life.

In the second part of this book, dreams of historical personages, philosophers, and politicians are recorded and interpreted. Some of these papers are based on lectures given by Marie-Louise von Franz many years ago at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich (The Dream of Socrates, The Dream of Themistocles and Hannibal, and The Dreams of the Mother of Bernard of Clairvaux and the Mother of Saint Augustine). The detailed chapter on a dream of Descartes originally appeared in a volume in the series Studies in Jungian Thought (Northwestern, 1968) which is long out of print. This section of Dreams is informative, not only psychologically, but also from historical, religious, and philosophical points of view. Connections are revealed between the personal and family histories of the dreamers and individual and collective mores of their times. This greater perspective pervades all of the authors work and provides fascinating insights, as the reader will be experiencing throughout this collection.

It should be emphasized that the various papers gathered for this volume were not originally written as chapters in a book. With this in mind, we have placed papers with a more general content at the beginning, followed by those lectures that were specifically addressed to analysts in training. As an aid to readers not familiar with Jungian psychology, a glossary is included that provides explanations of some of the more frequently used terms.