Page:Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology (1916).djvu/331

 it is characteristic that a dream never expresses itself in this logically abstract way, but always in the language of parable or simile. This peculiarity is also a characteristic feature of primitive languages, whose flowery idioms always strike us. If you call to mind the writings of ancient literature—e.g. the language of simile in the Bible—you will find what nowadays is achieved by means of abstract expressions, could then only be attained by means of simile. Even such a philosopher as Plato did not disdain to express certain fundamental ideas by means of simile.

Just as the body bears traces of its phylogenetic development, so also does the human mind. There is therefore nothing surprising in the possibility of the allegories of our dreams being an archaic survival.

At the same time the theft of the apple in our example is a typical theme of dreams, often recurring with various modifications. It is also a well-known theme in mythology, and is found not only in the story of Paradise, but in numerous myths and fables of all ages and climes. It is one of those universally human similes, which can reappear in any one, at any time. Thus, dream psychology opens up a way to a general comparative psychology, from which we hope to gain the same understanding of the development and structure of the human soul, as comparative anatomy has given us concerning the human body.