• Psychoanalysis > Dream Interpretation

A Dream About Falling Teeth
(between Freud and Jung)

By J Jones

A dream about falling teeth which does not align to the rule decided by Freud in his Dream Interpretation. In short, I dream the canine tooth is loose and eventually falls. It was located upright side. I was upset, of course, and I noticed astonished that the tooth was not a normal one, but it seemed to be made of a translucent, pearly material. It slowly broke up until it was nothing left of it.

I made the associations, according to the (Freudian) rule and this is what I obtained:

The canine reminds me of the expression animus canin which I did not understand as I read a book about Jung (1), a very bad translation. But "canine" and "animus" brought immediately into my mind my cat, which is very skittish and at the same time behaves itself as if it was mixed with a dog (half-half, I use to say as a joke). It wakes me up at night because it is very active and of course I am getting angry and we come to all sorts of situations.

The fall of the tooth corresponds in my opinion not to Freud's interpretation but to the traditional one: when you dream a tooth is falling down, it means the death of a relative or of a closed person.

It is not hard to see in my short dream a desire that my cat should die because it disturbs me at night, a desire induced by its disarray and my uncontrolled rage.

icon Learn more about Freud's method of dream interpretation by taking our email course dealing with this topic. We offer many examples of dreams interpreted and hints on how to deal with this method

-> Click here to start right now.

But what about my strange tooth that seems to be translucent...? The first idea which crosses my mind is also related to the book about Jung which was so bad translated.

I read among others that Jung was not interested in somebody unless the person came up with symbolic material (dreams), leading to the collective unconscious. Of course my dream to kill my cat would have not interested him! But because this detail related to the collective symbolism shows up, maybe it would have tempted him....

I think the topic here is the following: even a dream about the wish somebody dear should die is an important dream. In other words, my dream has another meaning: while being so interested by the archetype symbolism, Jung ignores very important things, such as the death wish! There may also be a criticism of his attitude to Freud? (2) Why not?

(The tooth) broke gradually. That means, in other words, that it was torn to pieces. I have here as well associations which are not very favorable to Jung. I prefer to abstain myself.

Let's note that in a very simple, banal dream, so many ideas are concentrated, which I repressed or suppressed, refusing to follow them until the necessary conclusions were drawn.

Notes:
1. Don't know who is Jung? Please click
here to learn more.

2. The history of the relationship between Jung and Freud records the hostile dreams that Jung prefers to overlook. More about Jung and Freud here.

icon

<= Back to the dreams section of the site | Techniques

or to the Home page

Copyright 2002-2024, AROPA. All rights reserved.