Children's Dreams by Woolfson Tony Jung C. G. Meyer-Grass Maria Falzeder Ernst Jung Lorenz

Author:Woolfson, Tony, Jung, C. G., Meyer-Grass, Maria, Falzeder, Ernst, Jung, Lorenz
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2008-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

Dramatis persona:

The ego of the dreamer.

Exposition:

“I’m scared.”

Peripateia:

“Suddenly I fall into the water in an upright position.”

Lysis:

The dream shows a possible solution only with the word “nearly.” So something is there that saves the dreamer from the final catastrophe; some yet unknown eventuality might still occur, a backdoor for an escape has been left open.

The frequent recurrence of the dream—it was dreamed “innumerable times”—indicates its importance and its certainly fateful meaning.

To start with, let us try to have a closer look at the locale: “I go from Bellevue across the quay bridge.” Zurich seems to be the home town of the dreamer, so she does not cross just any bridge in some unknown environment, but the dream is situated in her city, in a place well known to her—an indication that the dream also concerns her own affairs. She comes from “Bellevue,” a beautiful square in Zurich, which is called “beautiful view” to boot. For a ten-year-old child, the place with the beautiful view—now lying behind her—might be her past childhood, the security she felt within the family. From there she comes, and now she crosses the bridge. Although she does not mention that she has to cross the bridge, she wouldn’t do it if it were up to her, because she is scared. This is probably a process at the mercy of which she fatefully is; her whole behavior in the dream is also completely passive. She has already left the place with the beautiful view, the place where life and future seemed “beautiful.”

She is already on the bridge. Three particular characteristics can be found for “bridge”: it connects two banks, two places of solid ground; it forms a secure way across the water flowing underneath it; and, third, it is not a natural formation, but man-made. Bellevue, the bygone beautiful childhood, was solid ground for her. So there would be adulthood on the other side, and the bridge would represent the transition from childhood to adulthood, namely, puberty. But Bellevue could also represent any other beautiful point of departure, a secure place, from which she has to move on. Because of its frequent occurrence, however, the dream can not only stand for a momentary slight difficulty that has to be “bridged,” but has to create an image that throws light on a fundamental situation of the dreamer. We have to resort to interpretations, therefore, that do justice to the dream’s importance. For this purpose let us have a look at some examples from history and mythology concerning the keyword “bridge.” The following examples have been taken from the seminar in the winter term of 1936/37.42 It is said that in a text of the Koran a bridge over hell is mentioned, thin as a string and sharp as a sword, which only the righteous can cross. A Muslim legend further tells of a bridge between the Temple of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, between the East and the West. Below is hell, into which the unrighteous fall. From

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