Charles Madigan’s article “Looking to our dreams” (Tempo, April 23) understates Sigmund Freud’s contribution to our understanding of dreams.
Almost 100 years ago, Freud took the radical position that dreams could be a subject for serious scientific inquiry. For Freud, dreams were the point of entry into the deepest layers of the self. Carl Jung was so captivated by Freud’s ideas–which were anything but black and white–that he became Freud’s main promoter. Jung took the lead role in bringing Freud’s ideas to the international scientific community.
Although Freud did indeed have strong opinions about the role of sexuality in human psychology, Mr. Madigan is creating a caricature by suggesting that Freudian dream analysis is simply an exercise in decoding sexual symbolism according to a universal formula. The images in dreams are intensely personal metaphors that can only be understood in the context of an individual’s inner life.
Contemporary Freudian psychoanalysts approach dreams in the same spirit as our Jungian colleagues: They provide special opportunities for us to help our patients gain a deeper awareness of themselves and to promote their growth.
