 The answers to the question why interpret dreams are really important, so I'm going to spend some time dealing with these specific issues in great detail. In brief, dreams do the following. Dreams provide the most direct access to unconscious material, they compensate and complement conscious attitudes, they tell the situation of the psyche as it is at that very moment, dreams are not distorted by ego defenses, hence provide very accurate information, they provide access to subjective and inner experiences, they provide pure symbolic or a magic representations of the archetypes, dreams can provide specific information to the analyst and dreams are essential diagnostic tools, especially when we deal with neurosis. The last two issues are that dreams facilitate healing and dreams are essential to the individuation process. Let's examine these ideas in turn. First, dreams provide the most direct access to unconscious material. One of the common products of the unconscious that we all have access to is the dream. It is a message from the unconscious, not from the ego. In this way we can imagine that each and every night the unconscious communicates to us in the form of a dream. Dreams provide unconscious contents that compensate or complement conscious attitudes. We have learned about the process of compensation and also specifically about the process of enantiadromia, a specific aspect of compensation. The dream attempts to compensate for the conscious attitudes we hold. It is as if we have a certain idea about ourselves or about a situation we find ourselves in and the unconscious says, okay, if that's the position you're holding, let me comment on it. I'll give you a short movie I made for you last night. You can call it a dream, but it is really a feedback movie from me, the unconscious. Third, dreams tell the situation of the psyche as it is. A dream offers a commentary on the state of the psyche at that time. It gives us direct feedback about how we are doing psychically. Think of the dream as a short movie or a snapshot of the state of the psyche the night before. There are some dreams which offer more than that. These are called prospective dreams. We'll deal with prospective dreams in due course. Fourth, dreams are not distorted by ego defenses, hence they provide accuracy. Freud's approach to dreams, which we touched on in the last episode about the difference between a symbol and a sign, relied on a dream image being treated as a sign. In addition, Freud felt that there is a psychodynamic process involved that distorts the message of the dream from its latent content to its manifest content. The manifest content, of course, for Freud was the actual dream text and symbol that we could recall the next morning. The psychodynamics involved are a series of defenses he called the dream work. Jung disagreed and said that there is no reason for the psyche to distort the dream or to disguise it. The dream is simply a message that we need some skill to understand, but it isn't heavily encrypted to protect the ego. So the Jungian model does not see that the dream is distorted, so it is remarkably accurate in its commentary. Fifth, dreams provide access to subjective inner experiences. This seems quite obvious to us by now. Anything that comes up from my personal unconscious will be unique to me, hence will contain my subjective experiences. Important here, of course, is that the dream also contains collective unconscious or archetypal material. Sixth, dreams provide pure symbolic or imagic representations of the archetypes. The dreams gives us access to archetypal images in their pure form. Later episodes will deal with another source of pure archetypal material, and that is the fairy tale. What we need to recognize about our dream at this stage is that when we recall the symbols of the dream, that these symbols are archetypal images. Number seven, certain dream material may present prospective imagery or messages from the unconscious. A form of a dream that we may occasionally experience is the prospective dream in which a statement is made about a future conscious attitude. I'll deal with this more when we discuss the types of dreams we have in one of the future episodes. Eight, dreams can provide specific information to the analyst. Those of you in analysis or considering an analysis with a Jungian analyst realize how critical dreams are to the whole analytic process. As the analyst and the patient work together on the analytic material, not only their egos are involved. There is a vast storehouse of information about the patient and the analyst's psyches that derives from dream material. Dreams that relate directly to the analytic encounter offer crucial information about the transference and counter transference in the sessions and thereby contribute to correcting the work that is being done. Nine, dreams are central to the analytic process. As mentioned above, dreams can correct the analytic situation. There may be a situation in which the analyst is incorrect in his or her assessment of a situation in the patient's life or is not dealing with the transference in the optimum manner. The patient dream will often be a direct statement about this. This fact is really quite incredible. Imagine being in analysis and feel that something is being missed in the analytic encounter. And that night your unconscious produces a dream that states exactly what the issue is. You then take it to the next analytic session, interpret the dream with the analyst and have the situation corrected. In other words, your unconscious makes a direct comment on your analysis. Those of you that have experienced this will know that this correction certainly does happen and it is a truly fascinating phenomenon. Ten, dreams are diagnostic tools, especially with neurosis. We are all of us neurotic to some degree. Dreams can give very good information about the neurotic way we live out our lives. The difficulty with severe neurotic conditions is that apart from being excruciatingly painful, these conditions are often quite resistant to change. It is through the dream that change is suggested and encouraged because, and this brings me to my next point, number 11, dreams facilitate healing. The way out of certain painful positions that we are holding consciously can be healed or worked through by a dream or a series of dreams. Most of us have experienced this at some stage. We are stuck between two very difficult positions or decisions in our lives and feel incapable of deciding either way. Then a dream appears with a powerful symbol contained in it that helps us find another way or the third way. And lastly, number 12, dreams are essential to the individuation process. Finally, dreams are central to this process of individuation, which briefly is the progressive unfolding of the personality in such a way that you become an individual, authentic and secure in your way of being in the world. As dreams correct our ego stance and offer vital information from the rest of the psyche, we know that the dream is central to this whole individuation process. So, there we have 12 good reasons to interpret dreams.