I wrote recently about the pre trans fallacy and there is another good link in with this which is highlighted within the integral framework. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are highly reputable distinguished therapists. They both split from one another with the key dispute being that Freud felt that life was all about the expression of sexual impulses which were restricted by society and became controlled. Carl Jung on the other hand was very much interested in the mystical and a working towards spirit and a true self.

As they are both put into their rightful perspective it became important to clarify that both of these viewpoints have a level of credibility. There is some kind of behaviour which is in fact sexual/aggressive impulses being acted out, and that is okay. There is also fairly seen to be the dimension of being which is a yearning to be more ourselves, a journey on the path of individuation.

It is highlighted that therefore the issue here is just deciding which is which. In retrospect Jung is seen as seeing lots of dreams etc as being a yearning to the true self. Whereas this could well be the case a lot of the time the truth could be that perhaps some of this is in fact a lower level impulse which is playing out which is more in line with Freud’s thinking. In doing this we make a pre trans fallacy. We look at something which is in fact pre personal and more regressive in its’ nature and with lower levels of human nature and mistake it for a higher form.

In the opposite way Freud saw all things as being aggressive and sexual impulses being acted out therefore a greater yearning for spirit can be interpreted through this lens as just being a primitive acting out but the truth is that it is actually a transpersonal experience. Here again we have committed a pre trans error.

Dreams are interesting to work with in clients and the trick is to explore meaning to the client and keep an awareness of the pre trans fallacy and what is actually playing out. Here the more humanistic style rather than the more expert doctor stance of Jung or Freud is useful to explore meaning with the client rather than a just telling them.