The dream in terminal illness : a Jungian case study

Welman, Mark

The dream in terminal illness : a Jungian case study

Master Thesis

1988

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

While it may be true that many of the mysteries of birth have been dispelled by modern science and medicine, death remains an enigma; the meaning of death and the question of what becomes of us after we stop functioning physically remain powerful concerns, anchored in antiquity. Nowhere are these concerns more manifest than in the care of the terminally ill. The present study, undertaken from a Jungian perspective, purports that nocturnal dream material affords a unique opportunity to explore and elucidate the psychological meaning and implications of death - to determine, in short, what death means from the point of view of the psyche rather than that of the body. In addition, the pragmatic place of dreams in counselling and caring for the terminally ill and their families will be briefly considered. In this way it is hoped that the present investigation shall serve as the impetus for further research and indeed for a shift away from the present tendency to exclude a psychological perspective in the care of dying patients. These objectives are undertaken primarily by way of a case study involving an intensive analysis of a series of dreams collected from a dying cancer patient.