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Dune: A Jungian Analysis

Decent Essays

In Jungian analysis, Jung believed that the unconscious is revealed through dreams and that there is collective unconscious in the human race. In the book Dune, the collective unconscious is shown in Paul and the Bene Gesserit. First, Paul can tap into the collective unconscious mentioned by Jung. At first, this only occurs when he takes the spice. He is able to push “his mind into prescient awareness”(287). This allows him to see into the history of others and also the different paths of the future. What he sees is the collective unconscious; he is able to see others in himself. Later on, Paul becomes less and less dependent on the spice as his abilities develop. He is soon able to see the collective unconscious at will. When Paul is at the Reverend Mother ceremony, he takes the converted Water of Life. There, he once again goes into the collective unconscious of Chani. He sees the distant past and the possible futures for her. The next time this happens is when he decides to drink the …show more content…

The collective unconscious of the Reverend Mothers is different than the collective unconscious of Paul though. During the ceremony of the transfer of Reverend Mothers, after the new Reverend Mother drinks and converts the Water of Life, the previous one comes in contact with the new one and all of the information and history is opened up in the new one. The new Reverend Mother during this time is able to see into the collective unconscious of all previous Reverend Mothers. Unlike Paul, who can see everything in the past and also possible futures, the Reverend Mothers can only tap into the collective unconscious of the past Reverend Mothers. Jessica experiences this at the Ceremony. She experience what she calls “mutual awareness”(345). This mutual awareness is what Jung describes as the collective unconscious. The Bene Gesserit all take and use Jung’s collective

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