WORKING WITH DEATH-RELATED DREAMS

Presenter: Marybeth Carter, Ph.D.

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Held in the Kirsch Lecture Room / Zoom depending on the coronavirus situation.

Open to Candidates and Interns.

Continuing Education: A maximum of 4 CE credits can be earned, based on attendance.

“Dreams are the letters that the soul writes to us every night”

(M-L von Franz, 1988, in The Way of the Dream).

In Jung’s view, dreams are psychic activity from the unconscious that is compensatory to the conscious attitude — they balance psychic one-sidedness. In this way, dreams function to aid the process of individuation including the event called ‘death,’ which Jung theorized is the goal of life. Dying has its onset long before ‘death’ occurs and sometimes dreams are received to help us become conscious of this impending event (Vol. 8, para 809). This workshop will explore recognizing and interpreting death dreams with examples from Jung in Man and His Symbols and Marie-Louise von Franz in On Dreams and Death. We will then explore death and dying dreams brought into the contemporary clinical setting as a way to better understand how to interpret dreams and the individuation process. Clinicians will develop practical skills to deepen their ability to work with their clientele’s psychological issues and content related to death and dying.

Texts will include Man and His Symbols (pdf sent prior to the workshop) and On Dreams and Death by Marie Louise von Franz (for purchase at the Institute Bookstore or on Amazon). On Dreams and Death

Learning Objectives:

This seminar is designed to help you:

• Describe the importance of the event called ‘death’ as part of the theory of individuation in Jungian psychology.

• Give an example of a dream image or dream motif that may be announcing the death of the dreamer.
• Distinguish motifs of rebirth and renewal from motifs of death and dying.
• Distinguish death dreams as a form of momento mori versus impending death.