This study is textual in its resource rather than empirical, and is applied to the experiential nature of the dream-ego. It is conceptual in its application, and its domain of inquiry is focussed on redescribing and reinterpreting the Jungian literature in order to further inform the understanding of the role of the dream-ego in analytical psychological practice. The major underlying assumption which forms the primary foundation for this study is that ‘mind is the subjective experience of brain’ and this statement serves the purpose of positioning the study as being anchored in biological science but not biological in scope. The statement also implies there is no conflict in the conclusions of neurobiological studies and phenomenological studies and positions these realms as correlates of each other. The subjective experience of brain is the realm in which our lives are lived and in which all our perceptions, ideas and feelings are experienced and so the phenomenological approach of the study is a consequence of that fact. The focus is on the dream-ego itself, using a selection of Jung’s own recorded dreams as vehicles to support, describe and reinterpret concepts from the literature in order to elucidate the dream-ego’s function in psychological health. If the dreaming state were exclusively an innocuous epiphenomenon of neurological processes with no experiential function, then it would be expected that the images generated would be quarantined from consciousness entirely, for reasons of psychic stability and hence then cease to be images, but the commonality and regularity of the dream-ego experience indicates an evolved psychic phenomenon with a definite relationship to the waking-ego. The remarkable images and associations experienced in dreams are expressions of the psyche’s uncompromising experiential authenticity and although these dream experiences may be profoundly complex, the dream-ego is seen to have an underlying naivety whose nature is captured by the title of Charles Rycroft’s (1981) book “The Innocence of Dreams”. When the dream-ego is contrasted to the waking-ego it becomes clear that the major difference is in this ‘innocence’ which is a consequence of the attenuation of rationality and volition for the dream-ego. This weaker rationality and volition prevents the dream-ego from talking or walking its way out of confrontation with unconscious content which manifests before it. The dream-ego experience is based on feelings and emotions which were the original reasons and criteria driving the censorship of the ‘feeling toned complexes’, as Jung describes them. The experience of unconscious material by the vulnerable dream-ego and the subsequent transfer to the waking-ego provides the option for the waking-ego to ‘reconsider’ or to make decisions based on the authentic feelings of the psyche. The fact that mammals exhibit REM sleep, and the strong case for mammals dreaming during that period, complicates the understanding of human dream function. In non dreaming sleep the ego is annihilated but is underwritten by the neural networks which constitute the ego when ‘active����. Since neural networks are known to atrophy with disuse, the sequestered ego is at risk of loss of fidelity on manifestation, and therefore may mismatch the environmental context. The study presents the dreaming state as the periodic partial activation of the ����neural ego���� to prevent atrophy and to maintain ego retrieval fidelity. This concept has applicability also to the animal case, since they must maintain their behavioural fluency and environmental congruence. Once the evolved dreaming state is established in mammals it may be subject to further evolutionary possibilities and subtleties in the human case. A consequence of this study is the presentation of the dream-ego as the partial arousal of the waking-ego, rather than the normal wording of the dream-ego as the half asleep waking-ego, since the dream-ego is seen as the psyche rehearsing its ego. The defining phenomenology of the dream-ego is found in its vulnerability to the feelings and emotions of the psyche, but paradoxically this vulnerability is its strength in its role as the feeling nexus between the unconscious and conscious mind. The waking-ego which may misconstrue its role in the psyche’s scheme of things and become aloof in its mentations believing all problems are intellectual, has the innocence of the dream-ego experience as its lifeline to the psyche’s authenticity. It is the intent of this study to contribute to the understanding of the role of the dream-ego experience in therapeutic practice, and placing the dream-ego as the protagonist of the study, to be attentive to the power of its innocence. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/204282 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Hunt, John V., University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Psychology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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