Influential Relationship Theories Dream Interpretation: Insights from 1 Unique Sources

The Oedipus complex is one of Freud’s best-known and most influential theories in the realm of dream interpretation. The term refers to a group of largely unconscious ideas and feelings that focus on the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate that of the same sex. The complex is named after the mythical Oedipus, who killed his father and then married his mother without knowing they were his parents. When Oedipus discovered the truth, he felt full of remorse and even though he was not personally responsible for the crimes, he gouged out his own eyes and wandered blind and exiled.

Although the term is now applied to both men and women, at first it only referred to the male version of the complex. In women, the Electra complex was said to exist. In the myth of Electra, she masterminded the murder of her mother to avenge her father’s death. According to Freud, the Oedipus and Electra complexes are universal phenomena, being responsible for much unconscious guilt and for dreams that focus on the death of a parent or lover.

Jung saw the world of dreams and relationships quite differently.

He rejected Freud’s heavy emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus and Electra complexes as a key to interpretation. For Jung, dreams were not just a way of helping us to understand conflicts and anxieties, but also a way to encourage the creative unfolding and development of a person’s whole potential. Jung developed a theory called the ’soul image’, in relation to the human need to create a sense of wholeness. The soul image tends to be an archetypal image. The symbols that represent the soul image often appear in dreams that involve intimacy with the opposite sex, but they can also be represented in countless other ways. For example, the sea is feminine in dreams as it is associated with waters of the womb and the earth is also feminine.

Symbols of masculinity can appear in dreams as bulls or lions or any other phallic symbol, such as a tall building. Jung felt that dreams can be used to discover and explore soul images to help us become a fuller and more balanced person.