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Jacob's dream (Gen. 28:10-16) has received little attention from psychoanalysts, partly because its symbolism seems so obvious as to require no elaboration. The dream, which occurred after Jacob had run away following his deception (and symbolic castration) of his father, symbolizes both his conquest of and reconciliation with the father. The giant ladder in the dream serves to assure Jacob that 1, 'he is in possession of the powerful paternal phallus and has successfully superseded the father as well as the hated rival Esau'; 2, 'with the introjected paternal phallus he can own and fertilize the whole earth (mother)'; 3, 'he can do so with impunity, having God's permission and promise, i.e., father's consent and support'; 4, 'the father is not killed, but is reinstated in the superior figure of God'; 5, 'the crime against the father … is undone, and turned into the opposite'; and 6, 'instead of being punished, he will be rewarded by future greatness and power'.
Another Biblical passage describes Jacob's battle at night with a mysterious stranger, near a river, in which Jacob's hip was broken. Niederland discusses the symbolism of rivers and the vague but intense anxieties related to the crossing of rivers. 'On analytic study these fears can be recognized as Oedipal anxieties, the symbolic equation of river=sister=breast=mother pointing directly to the Oedipal conflict … and to the castration anxiety connected with it.' The battle with the stranger represents an intense intrapsychic struggle marking Jacob's relinquishment of his lifelong competition with the father-brother and his acceptance of symbolic castration. The actual meeting between the brothers is an attenuated aftermath of the nocturnal scene. 'The reconciliation seems complete, though also here the latent tension between the brothers transpires through the text… It does not surprise us … that the conflict between the two brothers continued, although in a much milder form.' Mythologically the Jews