Number and Time Seminar – Exercise 1
i) I am alone with a blonde woman. She leads me into a dark room and I think to myself, “I know what goes on here.” But in the dark room she says to me: “Get a pen, I want to dictate an essay to you.” I awake completely confused.
ii) A young, dark man (shadow) is present and proffers conventional views in a friendly way. (I don’t remember any details.) I answer him angrily, calling him a swindler and telling him to leave.
Now he disappears and I meet two men. One of them says to me that he knows a singer and this person has explained to him an essay which a woman had dictated to me and which she had given him, the singer.
Christ with a black and white striped nose appears and is very humble. Through this my understanding of the sacrum [= the sacred] is to be completely changed. I am to wait for a while.
(van Erkelens, Wolfgang Pauli und der Geist der Materie, pp. 48f.)
QUESTIONS
1. A dream of quantum physics pioneer Wolfgang Pauli from May 11, 1947. Pauli was a known womanizer. At least in the early part of his life brothels were not unknown to him. So in his saying “I know what goes on here,” the dream is alluding to prostitution. Why is the room “dark”? What does it mean that Pauli thinks that the woman is a prostitute, but in fact she is a muse? What does this tell us about the nature of the anima in general and of Pauli’s anima in particular? How is Pauli’s understanding of the anima meant to change at this point in his life? Why is that important?
2. Explain how a shadow, such as is depicted in the second part of the dream, would manifest in a person’s behavior. How would this pertain to Pauli? Compare the “muse’s” request in the first part of the dream with the “shadow’s” behavior in the second part of the dream. How does one image follow from the other? What is the importance of Pauli’s attitude to the shadow?
3. Why does the dream then bring in TWO men? Why has a singer explained the essay? (What is “music” psychologically speaking?) How would that pertain to Pauli, a man known to be somewhat “cold” and aloof?
4. The number TWO returns in the dream. Why is Christ associated with TWO? What would “two” represent here? How do we see “two” implied in the very first part of the dream? (One “pole” of the two would be the lascivious behavior suggested by brothel visits; what would the other “pole” of the two be? In other words how is a conflict implied in the first part of the dream?) What does that conflict and the TWO in this part of the dream have to do with Christ? There are worlds of theological implication here. Do you recognize any of them?
5. Why must Pauli wait for a while?
6. I’ll put a PICTURE of the sunrise from Ancient Egypt up on the screen. Why would I include that picture in the context of the above dream of Pauli’s? Von Franz would see the picture as supporting evidence of her understanding of the psychology of numbers. How?
jgsparks.net/guides
Number and Time Seminar – Exercise 2
The dream of a forty-seven year old man, discussed in Jung’s Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar, p. 97. The analysand was in a sexless marriage and visited prostitutes in Eastern Europe. Jung cites this dream:
It is as if I were seeing a sort of steamroller from a point above. The machine is going and is apparently making a road, forming a particular pattern like a labyrinth. [And in the dream he thinks,] that is my analysis; and then he is in the picture which he has looked at from above. He is standing at the bifurcation of the road in a wood, and he does not know which way to go. At first he did not pay much attention to the arabesque the machine was making. [FIGURE]
QUESTIONS
1. Why would a man who visits prostitute dream of a machine?
2. Where do you see the one, two, three and four in the dream and image? What is that trying to tell the dreamer?
3. This dream and picture would be an example of Jung’s position that sexuality can be a symbol. Why and by what justification can Jung say that? How does that differ from Freud? How does Jung's understanding apply to the dreamer?
4. Why does the dreamer see the scene from above? Why is that important?
5. Can you think of any major literary text that begins with “a wood”? (Midway along the journey of our life | I woke to find myself in a dark wood, | For I had wandered off from the straight path. [tr. Mark Musa]) What would that add to the dream?
6. Sum up the meaning of the dream and image.
jgsparks.net/guides
Number and Time Seminar – Exercise 3
The dream of a forty-seven year old man, discussed in Jung’s Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar, p. 147. The analysand was in a sexless marriage and visited prostitutes in Eastern Europe. Jung cites this dream:
I am touring in my car near the Riviera. Some one tells me the route d’en haut et route d’en bas [the high road and the low road—there are, in fact, two roads that run along the French Riviera, one along the coast, one along the hills above]. can be used from now on only by those who stay for months in the country, that all cars have to go one way on the lower road, and the other way on the upper. These regulations change every day. Monday it is so, while on Tuesday it goes the other way, so that one could enjoy the beautiful view from every direction. Someone shows me a map with a plan of the two roads; green and white circles indicate the days of the week and the direction to be observed by the visitors, east-west and west-east.
The visitors who were there for only a short time need not observe the regulations, and I thought it rather illogical that they could go just as they pleased. I also heard that other visitors were protesting against these regulations, because one had to pay for permission to travel on these roads for not less than six years. We all thought that terrible exaggerated.
QUESTIONS
1. What do you know about the Riviera? Interpret this. In what way could the Riviera be the goal of the man’s development?
3. What is the meaning of the regulations? What is the dreamer (and the reader) learning about the unconscious here?
4. The main point of this dream for the purposes of our workshop is to illustrate the number TWO. Where is “two” in the dream? Why is that so important? What are the two aspects of the ‘two” that you can identify in the man’s life? What is the dream trying to tell him about those two aspects? What should his attitude to them be?
5. What is missing in the dream? Is that normal or abnormal for this (early) stage of analytic work?
6. How does the dream lay out the course of the therapy?
jgsparks.net/guides
Number and Time Seminar – Exercise 4
The dreamer is a middle-aged woman suffering from chronic and crippling claustrophobia
My friend has been to see a famous wise man, and has brought back some books and also an expanding device with which it is possible to demonstrate the Pythagoras theorem. (Gerhard Adler, The Living Symbol, pp. 397f.)
QUESTIONS
1. We learn from the dreamer, a woman in the second half of life, that the “friend” was one who introduced her to psychology. The “wise old man,” she and Adler (her analyst) concluded, represents a higher and more comprehensive wisdom.
2. Adler writes: The “expanding” device signified for the patient the growing power of spiritual realization, of continuously “expanding” understanding. At first sight it seems strange that the object of this understanding should be the Pythagoras theorem. [For the dreamer] the theorem carried a definite emotional message far removed from “abstract” intellectuality: when numbers are raised to a higher power, new relations are found to exist between them. According to the well-known theorem, if the three sides of a right-angled triangle are a, b, c, then a2 + b2 = c2. Yet a plus b does not equal c; there is no mathematical relation between them. Only when they are raised to a higher level, to a higher power, is the relation revealed, and with the addition of another dimension, c becomes, as it were, the uniting and reconciling symbol. On the level of higher understanding, of symbolical realization, unrelated and isolated facts reveal their relatedness and significance according to mathematical law.
3. What does it mean to raise numbers “to a higher power” in practical analytic work? In explaining this we make use of Jung’s “teleological” point of view. What is teleology? (From the Greek word telos = goal.) Compare Jung’s teleological point of view with Freud’s (and I think most every other brand of psychology) causal standpoint. How is this teleological point of view related to Jung’s understanding of the Self? Can you think of an example of how the “higher level” might look in practical living?
4. Adler continues: It is an interesting comment on the specifically feminine type of spirituality that a mathematical formula like the Pythagoras theorem should be experienced as a revelation of relationship and integration. Whereas a purely masculine attitude would have discovered mathematical and rational connections, to the dreamer the human and relational values were decisive, showing the eros aspect of the inner realization. But it is equally significant that the dreamer receives her knowledge through the intervention of a man.
What, in this instance, is the “specifically feminine type of spirituality”? In this light, compare the “masculine and feminine” way of looking at life. This distinction is also typical of the Western and Eastern view of life. Explain. What is the advantage of each point of view?
5. Why is it important she receives her knowledge through the intervention of a man?
jgsparks.net/guides
Number and Time Seminar – Exercise 5
Following are two dreams of a woman in the second half of a difficult life. Her marriages all ended in divorce. She was subsequently sexually used by several men in trusted positions. Her adult children and her were estranged. Near the beginning of analytic work she dreamed the following two dreams, about a month apart:
(First dream) I woke up and then dozed off again and saw this image. I felt warm and okay as I looked at the image. Actually, it felt more like we were looking at each other and her expression was one of kindness. There was a reflection of light, shaped like a square, but curved to the shape of the eyeball. The whole picture was in sepia tones.
QUESTIONS
1. The dreamer sees, by implication, an eye looking at her, and she sees a shape of what will become the table in the second dream. The eye brings to mind the number one, in its two meanings. Consider and explain both of those meanings. Why is the “one” symbolized by an eye? What is the internal “eye”? This is a critical feature of Jung’s psychology that there is an “eye” inside us looking at us. Jung would say the eye is an image of the Self. What does that mean? Explain the importance of this? How would that apply to a person who had more or less lost hope in life due to its difficulties? [NOTE THE SHAPE IN THE PICTUE OF THE EYE]
(Second dream) The focus of this dream was the making of a small, lightweight object. I seemed to be constructing it mentally as I did not see myself in the dream doing it. Its intended purpose seemed to be for meals.
It was in a rectangular shape with gently curved sides. At first, I tried using straws as the bottom frame so it must have been about 10 inches in length. The straws weren’t sturdy enough so I used wooden skewers, but clipped off the sharp points. The four sides were made of birch bark and bowed out slightly. No adhesive or fasteners were used. I think it had a lid though I did not actually see it. It was also supposed to be strong enough to sit on if needed.
As I was re-reading the dream, the object’s shape reminded me of the shape of the reflection in the dream of the eye [above] and also, the Ark of the Covenant popped into my mind.
QUESTIONS
1. The image seen in the first dream is constructed in the second dream. [IMAGE] Explain the meaning of her constructing what she has seen reflected in the eye.
2. What is the meaning that the image is based on multiples of four? What aspect of the dreamer’s life is being emphasized? Why is she constructing it mentally?
3. What is the meaning of the straws? Then that material is changed to skewers. Explain the transition from one material to another. Why are the sides birch? I.e., what is the symbolism of white?
4. Explain the food and seat reference. How is what she is constructing of herself both a vessel for food and a seat? I.e., how is four nourishing and supporting at the same time? Why is that important for a woman who has had an unhappy life of being a victim?
5. What is the Arc of the Covenant? Why is it in this dream? How does the Arc of the Covenant repeat the theme of the eye, the shape, and the dreamer’s constructing the shape? Can you think of the role of the eye in mythology? On the dollar bill? [I HAVE A SLIDE OF THIS.] Note the theological implications of the eye imagery and of four. Can you sum up the meaning of four in its various aspects.
6. If you feel brave, try tackling the following quote and explain its implied relevance to number symbolism (particularly to one and four) in general and to the dreamer in particular:
If an individual is destined for a certain level of psychological development, a time comes when subject and object are reversed. In other words when the ego, who all its life has experienced itself as the knower, becomes instead the known object, then the state of subjecthood is transferred to the other, and the subject—the ego—becomes the known object perceived by that other subject.