ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud thought that dreams of flying or falling, accompanied by either pleasurable feelings or feelings of anxiety, probably relate to childhood experiences of play and, in particular, of being swung playfully by adults. This chapter discusses certain dream images that have regularly been found to symbolize certain things. The elements—earth, air, fire, and water—are frequently featured in dreams. The elements, earth, air, fire, and water, when they appear in dreams are frequently used to represent groundedness/hard reality, thinking/phantasy, passion, and emotion. Carl Jung thought that Freud interpreted symbols, which Jung thought had many layers of meaning, as signs that point to just one thing. For example, Jung accused Freud of interpreting anything pointed: a church steeple, a cigar, a pencil, a sword, a walking stick, as a penis; and any container: a handbag, a box, a coffin, a purse, a cul-de-sac, as a vagina.
