Subjective-Level Interpretation
Category: Dream Interpretation
The Core of Subjective-Level Interpretation
Subjective-level interpretation (Deutung auf der Subjektstufe) reads every figure, animal and object appearing in a dream as an inner constituent of the dreamer's own psyche. An angry man in a dream is read as playing out an angry side of yourself. A gentle old woman in a dream is read as reflecting your own inner wisdom or nurturing side. On this view a dream is a "theater" of the inner world, and every character in it is an "actor" performing a different side of the self.
Jung valued this reading because it connects directly to the process of individuation. Recognizing and integrating the unknown sides of the self (the shadow, the anima/animus) lies at the heart of individuation, and dreams hold out those sides made concrete in the shape of figures. To read a dream at the subjective level is to read the map of a journey toward wholeness.
Correspondence Between Archetypes and Dream Figures
In subjective-level interpretation, the crux is working out which archetypal side a dream figure is performing. With a same-sex figure, try the line of the "shadow" first. If a same-sex person you dislike turns up in a dream, one line of reading is that a side of yourself you would rather not acknowledge has been projected onto them. A same-sex figure you admire, by contrast, points instead to potential in yourself that has yet to grow.
An opposite-sex figure is read as the "anima" (in a man's dream) or the "animus" (in a woman's dream). An attractive opposite-sex figure speaks to your relationship with the inner contrasexual, and a threatening one to the force of a contrasexual side kept down. With authority figures such as kings, queens, teachers and doctors there is a line that reads the "Self" archetype, and with the figure of a child a line that reads the "eternal child" (puer/puella) or the germ of a new possibility. None of this is a one-to-one table matching figures to archetypes, though. How the figure behaved inside the dream changes how you read it.
Practical Steps for Subjective Interpretation
The practical steps for reading a dream at the subjective level run as follows. First, write down the most prominent characteristics of each dream figure in three adjectives. Next, ask yourself, "Is this characteristic in me?" If you want to answer "no" straight away, that reaction is itself a clue. A characteristic of the shadow, a side you do not acknowledge, tends to show up first wearing the face of "nothing to do with me."
Then turn your attention to how the figure behaved in the dream. That behavior may be expressing what an inner side of you "wants to do." Anger kept down appears as a violent figure; creativity that goes unacknowledged appears as an artist. Once you reframe the actions of dream figures as your own inner impulses, the news from the unconscious begins to take shape. Reading the same dream once at the objective level, where the figures stand for real people, lets you compare which of the two readings carries more weight.
Deepening Self-Understanding Through Subjective Interpretation
Keep practicing subjective-level interpretation and self-understanding deepens by degrees. The thought that "the villain in the dream is part of me" tends to meet resistance, and that resistance is exactly what shows how hard integrating the shadow is. When you get past the resistance and can acknowledge the darker sides of yourself, the psychological energy that had gone into holding them down begins to move.
Lay out a long series of dreams and look across it, and the way the figures you read at the subjective level change over time comes into view. A shadow figure that was threatening at first turns into a collaborator or a guide. An anima/animus figure that stood opposed later appears as a creative counterpart. Such transformations show the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious shifting from opposition to cooperation, and they make a concrete clue for sensing how individuation is proceeding.
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