Jung distinguished a symbol from a sign. Signs represent something specific: stylized images of a man and a woman indicate public restrooms; a red light signals stop.

the “I” in the dream is usually the least trustworthy part. Often at night our dream ego—the “I” in the dream—is confronted by figures that frighten, denigrate, or frustrate. Upon awakening, we tend to side with our dream ego and assume that the figures that have crossed us in the dream are mistaken or threatening. Usually, however, the new

A dream is a theater in which the dreamer is himself the scene, the player, the prompter, the producer, the author, the public, and the critic. —C. G. Jung

complex is an autonomous center of energy formed by memories, sensory experiences, images, and ideas that coalesce around an archetypal core. Jung discovered complexes through his word association test early in his career: subjects’ responses to stimulus words were delayed or inappropriate if a word was emotionally loaded and caused unconscious

dreams present a fresh perspective. The dream maker’s views can differ radically from our conscious mind’s opinions and values. Jung said dreams are “invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand.”

In the last analysis, most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old forgotten wisdom stored up in us. And where we make contact with this old man in us? In our dreams. —C. G. Jung

Then you will find what supports you when nothing supports you. Then you will be comforted by, rather than threatened by, the idea that something within you knows you better than you know yourself. Then your ego consciousness will be reframed, enlarged, and deepened.

Archetypes are the inherited, dynamic, and autonomous structures of life processes and patterns that make up the collective unconscious. All archetypes are bipolar—they have creative and destructive aspects. Because they embrace the wide range from instinct to spirit, archetypes have a powerful emotional charge that can overtake ego. Archetypes

Both dreams and symptoms are examples of the transcendent function at work.