The Unknowing Self

The dreamer is a twenty‐nine-year-old man who faces challenges in his everyday life that restrict his options. We will not interpret this dream so much as use it to reflect on a circumstance involving the Self that is rarely discussed.

The dreamer is at a pleasant cocktail party. The host is a rich and generous man, who suggests that all the guests join him on a weekend trip. The dreamer declines on his own account and leaves the party to go home.

He walks along a street in the center of his hometown, wearing only a bathrobe, and comes out onto the square. At the same moment, a headwind begins to blow. With every step he takes across the square, the wind grows stronger. It becomes difficult to move forward. He must bend down in the increasing wind, eventually kneel down, and grab the cracks between the cobblestones with his fingers. He thinks that it is absurd – how can it blow so much? He can no longer move forward; he can only manage to struggle sideways. The wind does not cease to increase in strength. Eventually, he finds shelter behind a container. He remembers that he left his clothes with the host and must retrieve them.

The following morning, he is back with the host. All the guests are happy and satisfied with the trip; they traveled back and forth to New York. The dreamer regains his clothes.

So the dreamer is at a party, declines further socializing due to lack of money, and goes home in his bathrobe. He is walking along a road and needs to cross the square to continue to his apartment. The place is exactly as in reality, and both in the dream and in reality there is a church on the other side of the square (the one in which he was baptized as a newborn); from there it begins to blow so strongly that he actually cannot go home. Eventually, he goes back to the host to retrieve his clothes.

This dream is so explicit that our dreamer understood its central message, namely that "God" (the church, the wind) is trying to prevent him from living such an introverted life. But, he laments in his journals, he has no choice. Neither in the dream nor in reality would he be able to afford to join a weekend trip. (Even if the host offered the company flight and hotel, of course one couldn't join without one's own money.)

In his journals, the dreamer expresses frustration that the dream so explicitly states that he should do something that his actual, external circumstances make impossible.

Of course, it is not literally about traveling and entertaining oneself, but in short, it is about extraversion versus introversion. The dreamer has, for the past three years, worked hard on a novel and has been fairly introverted and plagued by a lack of money. Now that the novel is finished, it seems, it is high time to turn outward.

Thus the dream functions to a large extent in a compensatory manner. Note that the dreamer is on his way back to his "writing nook" that is located on the other side of the church. This is not tolerated by the Self: ”Enough of the introverted existence.”

The dreamer becomes frustrated, because he thinks that the dream should be aware of his life circumstances and his ambitions – for he has no plans to continue as before now that the novel is finished; yet he also feels incapable of changing his life. He thinks that the dream should know this and, so to speak, if not support him then at least leave him be.

But does the dream know that? Or, to be more specific – does the Self know it? (If any specific psychic component within us gives rise to our dreams, it would be the Self). The Self is the totality of the human psyche, but also its regulating core; just as the ego is the center of consciousness, the Self is the center of the psychic wholeness. The Self as a concept, or in all experience, could just as well be called “the God within us.” (Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, para. 399.)

In the central scene of this dream, the Self and “God” are very much synonymous. The square is the center of the city (“the whole”), and thus often a symbol for the Self in our dreams. When the dreamer reaches this place, this center, the wind begins to blow. Wind has always been associated with God (Ruach Elohim) and in this dream the storm wind even comes from the church. The image is very clear – the Self as the God within us, with its storm, prevents the dreamer from going home to his small apartment; it forces him back to the host and the guests. Right now, symbolically speaking, that is where he must be – he is not allowed to go back.

The dreamer understands what the Self means, but is frustrated that it in turn does not understand that the dreamer, in practice, cannot follow its command. How is it that the Self does not “understand” the dreamer’s life situation, this God within us?

Jung argues that the unconscious psyche, the individuation process, and the Self are natural phenomena, and relate to the ego to a large extent as such. Nature does not come to us and offer us what we desire. We cannot expect the Self to function as an inner, caring parent. It is rather amoral and indifferent to the personal needs of the ego, just like any other natural phenomenon.

But it is also the case, according to Jung, that the Self does not live in the world of the ego. It knows nothing of money, debts, or timetables. It lives outside of time and space. The conscious ego lives in time and space, and struggles with all the concerns and setbacks of everyday life. However, through the individuation process the Self has a driving function, as the storm in this dream illustrates. It is as if the Self wants something from the ego, but without taking into account the ego’s life situation or capacity. The Self can be experienced as both our enemy and our guide.

The Self does not see what we see, just as we do not see what it sees. Here a conflict arises between the ego and the Self. How should one handle this? Jung discusses these relationships in Jung’s Seminar on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra (pages 239–242). He argues that one must reason with the Self. One cannot ignore it or refuse it; one must reason: “Now, don’t be blind; for heaven’s sake be reasonable. I shall do my best to find a place for you in this world, but you don’t know the conditions.” (p. 241.) That is exactly what our dreamer ought to have done, instead of feeling frustrated and somewhat dejected.

The Self is, to some extent, clueless, and we must be prepared to reason with it, talk with it, compromise with it. Of course, one must always be sincere, and as Jung says, have good arguments for one’s position. Then the Self listens. One cannot beat around the bush, offer excuses, and so on, but must be not only honest but also sincerely try to follow along with its wind. If it turns out that it is actually an impossible situation, one must be aware of and harbor the conflict, as well as be attentive to the signals of the unconscious; then the transcendent function comes into play, the autonomous self-regulation that unites opposites.