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This Paper discusses Jungian analytic theory and technique in relation to a specific archetypal sub-phase of the analytic process: beginning. It is in beginning the treatment that a certain kind of clinical material and qualities of the analysand or analyst are more crucial than others. Analysis is a cyclical process, with the beginning of one's life often returning to repeat itself as the central clinical issue (MELTZER 49). This is especially the case in the very beginning, but also at the beginning of every analytic term, week, or hour. Jungian analysts are, in many cases, distinguished from analysts of other schools by the attention they may give to what Jung called the ‘initial dream’ or a series of initial dreams in the difficult beginning phase of either psychotherapy or psychoanalysis (ASPER-BRUGGISSER 2). Although Freud mentioned in talking about beginning treatment that a patient may reveal all of his psychopathology in the first few sessions (FREUD 14), highlighting the possible significance of initial dreams in the analytic process as reflecting both pathology and healthy inner world resources seems to be one of Jung's contributions to contemporary psychoanalysis as a whole. Jung's interests are diagnostic and prognostic (JUNG 28, 32, 34).
A paucity of interest in initial dreams is true despite the fact that dream analysis may play an exceptional role in classical as well as ‘post’ Jungian analyses. It is also true, despite widespread agreement in non-Jungian literature, that more specific evidence is needed for future advances in studying the concept of analysability in relation to the dream. Bachrach and Leaff, for example, in a review of the clinical and quantitative literature on analysability argue convincingly that,
In actual practice, the analysability of a patient may vary with different analysts. Some people do well with certain analysts and not with others. Some people also do poorly with any analyst. This has a great deal to do with what goes in