The Analysis of a Catastrophic Dream and The Hypertrophy of Modern Consciousness

Abstract A 35‐year‐old woman patient had an unusual dream with a catastrophic plot. The protagonist of the dream is a girl who lives on an island; she makes a wish that there will always be a sun in the sky . After that, 30 additional smaller suns appear in the sky, so that it never gets completely dark. Due to her wish, a strange phenomenon occurs: a huge black octopus emerges from the ocean and lashes out with its tentacles at the people on the coast of the island, causing great destruction. The archaic motifs presented in the dream, such as the sun and the sea monster, plus the absence of personal motive, lead us to consider that this is primarily an archetypal dream. The thesis is raised, based on the amplification method and Jungian theory, that the dream portrays the process of hypertrophy of modern consciousness . These days, we notice inflated, Promethean consciousness in the unprecedented development of technology, which poses serious risks to the individual and society. The purpose of this paper in making this visionary dream public is not to reinforce feelings of hopelessness that plagues so many people nowadays, but rather to provide food for collective thought.