If Jung had a dream database composed of dream journals from across cultures and time,
how would he use it? What would he look for and what would he find meaningful? Could he
find expressions of archetypes, individuation, or the collective unconscious? This paper
summarizes the academic method for quantitative analysis of dream content, then speculates on
possible paths of its development. This paper then outlines a Jungian foundation for the
quantitative analysis of dreams and other psychical experiences.
The Jungian concepts of the collective unconscious, synchronicity, individuation, and archetypes serve as the basis for expectations or hypotheses regarding the quantitative analysis of large collections of first person
accounts of subjective experiences such as dreams and visions. These concepts lead to the
expectation of the discovery of synchronicity, archetypal motifs, and other meaningful patterns
through which causality of psychical phenomenon may be scientifically explored.
I wrote this paper as part of my Master’s capstone project in the East/West Psychology department at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
References
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