Dream Incubation: The Roles of Instinct and Archetype in Ritual

Abstract

This paper explores Jung’s view of psychodynamics in order to show both (1) that attributing simple dichotomies to his theory are wrong-headed, and (2) that Jung worked-out the relations between evolutionary biology and symbolic activity in a way that can be useful in understanding both dream symbolism and dream incubation—that is, the ritual evocation of “big” dreams. We look closely at the relationship between instincts and archetypes, and show the importance of the notion of psychoid process in bridging symbolism and ritualized action. We then examine the archetypal and ritual evocation of dreams across cultures using ethnographic data, We demonstrate how dream incubation and active imagination are related, and track the latter approach in Jungian dream-work.