I have been asked why I give long explanations to even short and seemingly simple dreams. The answer is there aren't any dreams that are simple. If you have a dream where there is you and your father in your car and your father is driving the car, you may think there is a simple explanation for the dream. That seemingly simple explanation would be your father had recently driven your car with you in. End of story.

But there is always more to the dream than a simple explanation. There always is. All dreams have at least two 'meanings' or explanations/applications. Every dream. Not only did Jung teach this but i have found it to be true in working with dreams here at the Dream Forum {3500+ interpretations/15,000+ posted responses/comments}. The car dream would indicate, other than the fact you had recently been with your father and he was driving your car, there is some aspect of your life that you father is 'driving', or in control of. If you are in the back seat this probably indicates you are allowing this to happen. You are taking a back seat to his wishes. That would suggest an emotional conflict.

Dreams speak in a language of symbol and metaphor. The car is the symbol and the metaphor is the car is you. It is your car representing the direction of your life. Your dreams are about you and your emotional life. If it were your father's car with you as a passenger it would represent the relationship with your father and there would be unresolved emotional energies involved.

Dreams are about our emotions, and they attempt to help resolve the conflicts. This is the therapeutic value of dreams that nature has provided. That shouldn't be so hard to understand or accept. Nature provides us with the tools to survive. The body has the immune system to help ward off infections and illness. Why should it be so difficult to understand the same is true with the mind? Jung, through working with thousands of patients and interpreting tens of thousands of dreams recognized the symbolic language of dreams and also a therapeutic aspect. Jung, a one time student and early follower of Sigmund Freud, posed that the function of dreams is to compensate for those parts of the psyche (total personality) that are underdeveloped in waking life. These underdeveloped aspects are what dreams are pointing to. Even a 'simple' explanation has more to it because you would not have dreamed the dream unless there was a reason for it. Being with your father stimulates emotional energies and any conflicts there are {most are negative but positive dream happen also} will be the focus of a future dream. Repetitive dreams or nightmares suggest there is something very emotional involved in the dreamer's life.

Neurobiology and other neuroscience studies have provided many new insights to the dreaming mind. From the many research papers I have read over the past years most have either confirmed Jung's theories or have offered nothing to counter them. When I first started working with dreams in 1998 there were few websites that used Jung as a source of dream theory {most were Freudian}. Today that has changed. You can not go to a dream website that doesn't use Jung directly as its source or indirectly uses like minded theories {symbol and metaphor} in interpreting dreams. I can say without hesitation that with enough information about the dreamer i, or any other person learned in Jungian psyche and with a developed intuitive mind, can interpret any dream competently. Here at the Dream Forum when i provide an interpretation the only information I have originally is the age and gender of the dreamer. Age can be important because younger people's dreams tend to focus on the present and the future {they are still developing an ego identity} whereas an older person has lived life, accumulated emotional baggage, and begins to look back reflecting on experiences.

Gender is important because a unknown male in a woman's dream is addressing male relationships that hold emotional energy {especially if the male is named in the dream} and/or represents masculine aspects of the woman's psyche and personality. The same holds true for a man with women having feminine associations.

So there you have it. 'Simply' put there is no such thing as a simple dream. All dreams have meaning, and always more than one. I have had dreams and months later realize something new to what the dream was about {and not discard the original interpretation}. Dreams are simply amazing but other than that simple is not a word that describes dreams.

Jerry

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