Friend / companion Dream Meanings

(1) If in your dream you have a friend or companion of the same sex as vourself, he or she may svmbolize your alter ego or shadow, which consists of those aspects of your personality that vou have so far neglected or repressed. (Even in real life we may project on to other people some of the contents of our own unconscious - repressed sadism, for instance, or an inferiority complex.)

The conscious ego, says Jung, cannot safely explore the deeper regions of the psyche without the shadow. In other words, there is little chance of re-rooting oneself in the true centre of one’s being without first acknowledging that there are aspects of one’s personality other than those that one has allowed into one’s conscious life. (On shadow).

(2) If the friend / companion in the dream is of the opposite sex, he or she may represent the animus / anima. The anima is the feminine side of a male psyche, the animus the masculine side of a female psyche. Acknowledgement of this contrasexual element in the psyche, and its assistance in tackling life’s tasks, are essential for personal wholeness (for anima / animus, see Brother / Sistcr, section (4)).