Interpretation of Dreams and Visions

and Jung and the final break between them came on their trip to the United States in 1912. During this period when Jung pondered on the validity of Freud’s theory and how this theory could be linked to human history, Jung had a dream.

He dreamt that he was in an unknown two storey house but he knew it was his house. He found himself in the upper storey in a type of salon, furnished with fine old furniture in rococo style, with many old paintings hanging on the walls. He was quite pleased with the appearance of his house and wanted to discover what the lower floor looked like. Descending the stairs, he reached the ground floor, where everything was much older, dating to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The furniture was medieval.

The floor was tiled with red bricks, and everything was rather dark. He then came to a heavy door and discovered a stone stairway that led down into the basement. There he found himself in a beautiful vaulted room that looked ancient. The walls dated to Roman times. On the floor he discovered a golden ring. With it he lifted a stone slab and saw another stairway leading down. He followed it and came into a low cave cut into the rock. Thick dust, scattered bones, broken pottery, and two human skulls lay on the floor. The skulls were partially disintegrated. Then he awoke.

Jung asked Freud to interpret his dream, which Freud did according to his wish-fulfillment theory. Before starting with the interpretation, Freud asked Jung what two people he disliked the most. Jung mentioned his mother-in-law and wife. Freud claimed that the two skulls represented Jung’s wife and mother-in-law because he was convinced that Jung would like to see both dead. This was not true at all. Jung liked both of them very much but had deliberately misled Freud to test his interpretation skills.