We are holistic beings. Body and mind work together as expressions of who we are. Psyche reflects body and body reflects psyche. A person's body speaks a great deal to who they are just as one's mental health is reflected in the workings and appearance of the body.
C.G. wrote, "Not infrequently the dreams show that there is a remarkable inner symbolical connection between an undoubted physical illness and a definite psychic problem, so that the physical disorder appears a a direct mimetic expression of the psychic situation" (CW 8, 502).
A young person related, "My dream last night was of an old man. He was decrepit, aging by the minute. The thing about the dream was that it took place in a seedy town, filled with down-and-out people who grumbled their way through life. The old man was a stooped over grumbler." The young man complained of how run down he was and how he couldn't find a reason for it. The dream spoke to his negative attitude and how colluding with grumbling lessened his psychic and physical health by the minute.
Underlying this person's problem was an inner saboteur, one symbolized by the stooped over and grumbling old man. The dreamer secretly wanted to cop out on life, to recede into dark corners in which meeting life's responsibilities could not possibly be done by one so tired and worn out. Grumbling was taking him there, quick. Physical disorders often reflect a psychic oppression that can be brought to the light of consciousness and helped to heal.
A dream shed light on a dark psychic state that directly affected his body. He was perpetually tired and needed to discover the reason. The dream dramatized what he did to himself, how he damaged his mind, and how this negatively impacted his body. We are holistic beings. Dreams, psyche, and body work together via inner symbolical connections that facilitate inner movement away from destructiveness and into physical and psychic health.
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