ABSTRACT
This chapter describes key concepts in Jungian psychology pertaining to vocation – such as the psyche, the unconscious, archetypes, individuation and the Self. Dreams may offer vocational guidance from the psyche in the form of symbols and images. Recurring travel dreams led the author through career frustration to advance her work as a career counsellor. CG Jung considered dreams to be spontaneous expressions from the unconscious or objective psyche – a source of wisdom beyond the ego. In Jung and phenomenology, Roger Brooke examined the word psyche across Jung’s Collected Works. The Jungian psyche is not synonymous with the Cartesian notion of the personal mind; it speaks through non-rational means – such as symptoms, complexes, synchronicities, images and dreams. Psyche encompasses the world of work and is similar to what phenomenology situates as the life-world (Husserl’s Lebenswelt). When a calling arises from the psyche, it will embrace a combination of both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ factors. Depth psychological approaches to working with dreams – from Sigmund Freud, CG Jung, James Hillman and Robert Bosnak – are summarised. Interviews and stories provide examples of dreams providing inspiration and problem-solving at work. Suggestions for reading and guidance on working with dreams are offered.
