The following text is an early seminar paper written during my training at the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich in 2008. I decided to leave the paper largely unchanged in its basic ideas and direction, despite its limitations, because it reflects an early attempt to think psychologically about dreams, compensation and complexes through broader symbolic and natural processes.
Introduction
There were two ways that I could have written this seminar paper. First was by quoting Jung and second was by trying to express the thoughts that occurred to me and conclusions I made by reading Jung and reflecting on how it fitted into my view of the world. I chose the second. So the task before me is to try to put all my thoughts about compensation in dreams and complexes in dreams into as much as five written pages, and I am not sure whether that is good or bad.
What is Compensation?
Compensation lat. (compensation – making something equal) can mean amends for something lost or given, payment for unused holiday in labor law, restoration of lost balance or damaged function in medicine, or accounting of mutual debts in commerce.
What is common to all these definitions of compensation? Compensation is process that sets in when one of opposites has gone too far.
So compensation is one general principle that makes world possible to exist and if there were no compensation, there would be no principle that would stop any process from going irreversibly into one opposite.
For example, in physics matter has mass and mass exerts gravitational field that attracts other mass. If there were no force to counteract gravitation, whole universe would collapse into one point. But there is repulsion between atoms that compensates for gravitational pull of matter and that makes our planet Earth, for example, possible to exist.
Or if there were not some kind of principle that stops electrons from collapsing into atom nucleus, same thing would happen to atom.
Or in biology, our body is producing heat but perspiration compensates for that heat production and we do not cook ourselves up.
There are processes that have no other process to compensate for them, but in that case happening is short-lived, like in explosion of nuclear bomb, although even that is compensated by atmosphere pressure after short destructive event.
It seems to me that every process that is expected to go on for longer period of time needs to have compensatory relation with some other kind of process. And process of life is few billion years old. For example, absorption of oxygen into blood is compensated by carbon burning in our cells. Rising concentration of carbon-dioxide in our blood is compensated by its resorption into air in our lungs.
Ever-changing environment of humans has made us develop tool to cope with that kind of environment. When pure instincts threatened to destroy certain number of individuals during evolution, only those who had good compensating reactions survived. They developed consciousness as compensation for unconsciousness.
But also our ego, as representative of consciousness, tends sometimes to become one-sided and needs compensation from unconscious in order not to go into extreme. So one-sidedness of ego-consciousness is compensated by unconscious. For compensation of conscious attitude by unconscious, consciousness needs to exist and it has to become sufficiently one-sided.
When ego-consciousness becomes too one-sided, compensation can take dramatic proportions and can happen in waking life, but usually compensation of conscious attitude can be observed when abaissement du niveau mental happens, like in sleep. And it can be seen, in symbolic form, in dreams.
When we are awake, ego-complex exerts pressure on contents that are not important for present situation and when that pressure is lessened, what is left of ego can observe what is happening below threshold of consciousness. On one hand ego can observe its own foundations, i.e. unconscious on which ego is based, and on other hand reactions of unconscious to its own existence. Second part is mostly compensatory in character and that is what is happening when we talk about compensation in dreams.
Here are few examples.
An overworked married woman, after hard day at work, dreams about carefree time when she was dating her husband. She wakes up rejuvenated and little nostalgic for those times. Dream is compensating her present attitude when she is working too much and reminding her that there is more to life than work.
Student who has to study for exams but thinks he already knows enough dreams that he has to pay more money for his already paid scholarship. Student has overestimated his preparedness for exams and dream tells him that he has to give more effort in preparing for them.
Youth dreams of girl that he overvalues in conscious life. In dream she is ugly, stupid and speaks in primitive language. Unconscious tries to devalue girl and so compensate conscious overvaluation.
Complexes
Adaptation is process by which we cope with outside world on one hand and our inner world on other hand. Most sophisticated tool of adaptation is ego. As it develops it gains certain attitude that has proved itself useful in past and ego is reluctant to change it. We could say that it identifies with it and as such gains certain rigidity. But ever-changing environment demands constant development of already achieved attitude.
If outer or inner circumstances demand attitude that ego does not possess, compensation from unconscious occurs and nature takes its course in form of archetype that tries to force itself into consciousness through images or actions. If archetype expresses itself through action we talk about instinct, but to be incorporated into consciousness it has to be expressed as image also. For image to be perceived by ego, archetype has to borrow material from consciousness in order to make symbol. Symbol is unconscious fact expressed by conscious images.
When consciousness perceives symbol, several things can happen. New thing can be understood by ego and incorporated into consciousness, so that new attitude appropriate for new situation is attained and adaptation becomes successful and conscious. But archetype may also not have enough material to be properly expressed, or expressed fact may be too incompatible with already attained ego attitude and repression occurs.
In latter two cases unknown thing that is essential for adaptation to new circumstance stays unconscious and complex is formed. In second case created complex is so-called complex that has never been conscious and in third case we are talking about complexes of personal nature.
Complexes have purpose of adapting individual to situation that started process of their creation. But those adaptations lack differentiating power that ego has and they “adapt” us not only to situations that created them, but also to situations that remind us of them or are merely associated with original event that created complex.
One example that comes to mind is association experiment where word that is merely associated with certain event makes complex active and repression is needed, which takes time and prolonged reaction occurs.
When we have complexes, we are not only one, but many and as such we are uncoordinated, like army without commander. We are less adapted with complexes than when complexes become part of consciousness. We are one-sided and that situation is extreme and as such calls for compensation.
Compensation and Complexes
If we have love troubles, sometimes romantic movie helps. In movie we see people with same troubles and we see how they react to similar circumstances. By experiencing movie, we give archetypes content to express themselves and new thoughts or feelings occur that can help us cope with our situation.
But when we fall asleep, we also see movie and actors in that movie are our complexes. By experiencing dream, we get chance to experience complexes on more conscious level and by experiencing them we get chance to incorporate them into consciousness. And that is one kind of compensation for our dividedness.
For example, man dreams about his uncle who is little raw, little like cave man, simple, interested in food, drinks, hunting and sex. Dream reminds him that he has his uncle in himself also and by remembering that he connects with that aspect of personality. And by doing that he has chance to evaluate his behaviour next time subjective uncle constellates.
Conclusion
This seminar paper was hardest of all for me to write. There was no specific problem to solve and I had to dig out theories and conclusions I use intuitively when thinking about dreams.
I feel that what I said in this seminar paper is what lies behind dreams and complexes, at least from my subjective viewpoint. I tried to use as few assumptions as possible and assumed that compensation is general law that governs every possible process in physics, biology and psychology where opposites are at play. It connected itself with theory of evolution and fitted with Jung’s theory of compensation and complexes, at least it seems so from my subjective viewpoint.
Bibliography
- B. Klaić, Dictionary of Foreign Words, Nakladni Zavod MH, 1990
- C.G. Jung, The Symbolic Life, Princeton University Press, 1976
- C.G. Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Princeton University Press, 1969
- J. Jacobi, Complex, Archetype, Symbol, Princeton University Press, 1959