Speech, Speaking, Mute

The ability to speak is humanity's victory over the unconscious. (See also Name.) Through speech, we make ourselves understood and can use this ability to influence others. The image of a sorcerer casting spells by uttering formulas illustrates our understanding of the power of words. Not only in Christianity is the world created through words.

Speech symbolizes, in this way, our consciousness, our civilization, and our ability to influence our situation.

Someone who is terrified or otherwise overwhelmed may lose the ability to speak. Basic functions still operate, perhaps even better than usual, but a terrified ego no longer has control over higher functions. Similarly, a drowning person cannot call for help because this higher function is autonomously "shut off" in favor of more basic functions, like breathing. These actual circumstances illustrate that speech belongs to humanity's conscious, "higher" functions, as opposed to functions like breathing or flight.

If one cannot speak in a dream, it may be because the dream ego is under the influence of powerful, unconscious content—an element often seen in nightmares.  

When someone finds herself in a situation where she cannot speak, cannot articulate the words she want to say and know how to express, but instead only stammer, trip over her words, or even become mute, she has been deprived of her human expressive faculties. It is as if, like a character in a fairy tale, one is transformed into something else, perhaps an animal or the like, due to a curse or, psychologically speaking, a complex. This curse can be lifted when one is transported to another situation that doesn't carry this enchantment, or when the unconscious content, which tends to enchant in this way, is made conscious.

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