Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths - An Introduction to CGJung's Analytical Psychology - Lars Ehnberg

Lars Ehnberg's Dreams, fairy tales and myths is the first Finnish-language basic work on CGJung's analytical psychology. Analytical psychology was born at the same time as Freud's psychoanalysis. The first steps of psychodynamic theories were already taken at the end of the 19th century. Their perception of people emphasizes the unconscious side of people. Freud also emphasized the importance of childhood for personality development, which later research on early interaction then confirmed. "Talking cure" has been a revolutionary therapeutic method for over a hundred years.

The collaboration between Jung and Freud ended in a break in 1913. Jung began to develop his own analytical psychology. Jung's more positive understanding of the unconscious mind and the meaning of symbols has since gained many followers. The Myers&Briggs personality test is one of the most famous applications of the typology developed by Jung in the 1920s.

Individuation is one of the central concepts of analytical psychology and means a person's life-long development into his own self. Jung primarily focused on the development of an individual in the second half of his life, on finding the purpose of life.

CG Jung's ideas have inspired Hollywood screenwriters and filmmakers and, in recent decades, Danish drama makers. Jung studied fairy tales, myths and images in which the unconscious psyche manifests itself. His views have influenced the construction of the drama character and storytelling. They say that the film resembles a dream. Artists of various fields who work with symbolic material have been inspired by Jungian psychology.

Jung sees the unconscious mind as a creative resource. His concept of being human was broad and permissive - there was also room for exceptional individuals and abnormal states of mind were part of the whole of the psyche.

As a psychotherapeutic method, analytical psychology is less well known than Freudian psychoanalysis. Around 3,000 Jungian psychoanalysts work worldwide - fewer than psychotherapists in Finland. In Finland, one of the pioneers in the career of Jungianism has been Doctor of Philosophy Lauri Rauhala. There are currently three Jungian psychoanalysts working in Finland. In the Jungian method, there is usually one appointment per week, the therapy is interactive and utilizes various creative methods. Jung also addressed the mutual relationship between patient and doctor, where both are affected and changed during the therapeutic relationship.

Dreams, fairy tales and myths also includes a reconstruction of the word association test in its original form, the way it was done in the Burgholzl mental hospital at the beginning of the 20th century. Jung worked as a hospital psychiatrist.

The author of the book, Lars Ehnberg, is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Ehnberg trained in Zurich in the 1980s. He presents Jung's central theories in a common sense and interesting way, with the warm life attitude of an experienced psychotherapist.