The Theory of Psychoanalysis comprises Carl Jung’s 1912 lectures at Fordham University, that outlined the future of his work in psychoanalysis, and represented a decisive break from the theories of his friend and colleague, Sigmund Freud. In these lectures, he develops his own theories of psychology based on his practical experience. He first looks at infantile sexuality, the conception of libido, and the etiological significance of the infantile sexuality. In chapters five to seven, he discusses the unconscious and its contents in detail, including the dream.

In the essay "On the Significance of Number-Dreams", Carl Jung explains why numbers are not just artifacts of the conscious mind but hold a deeper significance. Through the study of the "number" dreams of his patients, he discovered that the smaller natural numbers are symbols in the same sense that the people and events of our dreams are symbols of behavioral situations and personified collective character traits. Number is tied to synchronicity and has an archetypal foundation, defined by Jung as an "archetype of order".

In symbolic terms, the archetype of the father is responsible for the child’s dynamic movement. The father becomes associated with action, activity, consciousness and independence, in order to break free of the symbiotic collective of the mother-child duo, and later the collective of society. The archetype of the great father represents the realm of light and spirit. A sound balance of the mother and the father, and their representations, is thus required to maintain the continuity of life. When this balance is lost, all aspects of life turn to the negative.

For a world that over the past century has witnessed horrors the like of which could not have been imagined by earlier generations, Job’s cries of despair and incomprehension are all too recognisable. The visionary psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung understood this and responded with this remarkable book, in which he set himself face to face with 'the unvarnished spectacle of divine savagery and ruthlessness'.

Jung's discovery of the 'collective unconscious', a psychic inheritance common to all humankind, transformed the understanding of the self and the way we interpret the world. In On the Nature of the Psyche Jung describes this remarkable theory in his own words, and presents a masterly overview of his theories of the unconscious, and its relation to the conscious mind. Also contained in this collection is On Psychic Energy, where Jung defends his interpretation of the libido, a key factor in the breakdown of his relations with Freud.