Carl Jung's writings on dreams are not concerned with the legendary magic that many associate with the meaning of human dreams. Jung is not interested in either the spiritual mysteries or the religious aspects that some have linked to our unconscious mind; the writings are rather an exploration of Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. When I first heard the expression “collective unconscious,” I wondered what exactly it might mean. For a long time I imagined that human beings possessed only a simple, single-layered unconscious mind: I was profoundly wrong. Carl Jung never claimed that humanity experiences a common unconscious. According to Jung's theories, there is no overall "human unconscious", as I had initially thought. What Carl Jung argues is that the unconscious mind is not only made up of our personal experiences – those that calcify into our identities over time – but also that a collective human culture is deeply rooted in the unconscious mind. Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychoanalysis, explains his theory of the collective unconscious in The Personal and Collective Unconscious by telling a story to make the ideas more accessible. Jung notes that in addition to the personal unconscious, every individual has a common collective unconscious. Jung's collective unconscious is defined as a deeply rooted understanding of generic archetypes inherited through cultural means. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay While explaining the principles of his theory, Jung recounts his observations of a patient with whom he practiced "psychotherapy." Observing the parallels in this patient's dreams, Jung found evidence to believe that these dreams had their origin in a deeply rooted part of unconscious thought, which he later defined as his conception of the collective unconscious. Early on, as a disciple of Freud, Carl Jung initially thought that all aspects of unconscious thought were unique to the individual. Jung, through the Freudian paradigm, explains that the personal unconscious has repressive or hidden contents: “the materials contained in this layer are of a personal nature as [they are] acquisitions of the individual's life. They are the integral components of personality; they belong to his inventory” (498). My personal unconscious is easily identifiable because I am willing to recognize the memories that must be hidden in this form of personal storage. However, on many occasions I dreamed of young and old people I had never met, long corridors, hospitals, or beautiful and disturbing places I had never visited. Carl Jung refers to these dreams as manifestations of the collective unconscious and explains that these images and archetypes are inherited and consolidated across generations. The collective unconscious does not represent what we have personally experienced, but is the result of cultural repetition of what people around us have experienced (500). The collective unconscious can be compared to a thread of deep memories that extends beyond the limits of time, space, culture, language and race. Carl Jung noted that various individuals from different continents and cultures share similar archetypal images in the manifestations of their collective unconscious (491). This component of the unconscious mind is a common element of humanity where we can all dream with the same ancient symbols; the interpretations we attribute to these symbols can, however, vary depending on the respective culture. For example, I once had an African American friend and colleague who seemed to represent the irrational fear of.