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International Journal of Jungian

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Medea, Jason, and their illusions of the

Golden Fleece: a Jungian contribution
to transference dreaming
Robert Tyminski
a

a b

Member Analyst, C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco,

USA
Version of record first published: 28 Mar 2011.

To cite this article: Robert Tyminski (2011): Medea, Jason, and their illusions of the Golden Fleece:
a Jungian contribution to transference dreaming, International Journal of Jungian Studies, 3:1,
21-35
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International Journal of Jungian Studies

Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2011, 21
35

Medea, Jason, and their illusions of the Golden Fleece: a Jungian

contribution to transference dreaming
Robert Tyminskia,b*
a
Member Analyst, C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco; bProfessor of Psychiatry, University of
California, San Francisco, USA

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(Received 22 February 2010; final version received 15 October 2010)

Intense projections of love and power regularly occur in the transference
relationship. They often objectify archetypal aspects that a client might be
struggling to understand. The tale of the Golden Fleece, which stands as a symbol
for an inappropriately overvalued attachment, reveals that Jason and Medea were
too captivated by their own desires, which they projected onto the Golden Fleece.
They failed to appreciate the unattainable
and sacred
nature of the object.
The author uses this myth to draw a parallel with certain dynamics of the
transference relationship, when the therapist becomes the obscure object of the
clients desire or envy. Transference dreaming opens the door to a critical
examination of this relationship. The dreamer frequently sees something in the
dream that does not add up. This internal uncertainty within the dream indicates
that the therapist needs to examine what is happening in the transference or
countertransference that heretofore has been accepted uncritically. Three key
questions about the analytic relationship are addressed as aspects of what merits
further attention in order to be understood and processed collaboratively to make
therapeutic space for doubt and illusion.
Keywords: Jung; Golden Fleece; Jason; Medea; transference; containment;
dreaming; initial dreams

Introduction
The tale of the Golden Fleece is complicated, yet the general outline of it is well
known, though with clear bias in favor of Jason. He, however, is not the hero that we
have come to believe he is. Jason brutally uses Medea to gain all that he wants. In an
article published in a different journal also dedicated to Jungian thinking, I discussed
their relationship in detail with emphasis on what it tells us about addiction, and how
it results in a degradation of the feminine (Tyminski, 2009). Versions of the tale were
written over a six-century period from the fifth century BCE until the first century
CE. The writers included Pindar, Euripides, Apollonius of Rhodes, and Valerius
Flaccus (see Conway & Stoneman, 1972/1997; Warner, 1955; Green, 1997; Hunter,
1993a; Slavitt, 1999). Virgil used Jason and Medea as a template for the love story
between Dido and Aeneas in the Aeneid (see Jackson Knight, 1956).
Jung also wrote about the Golden Fleece, comparing the journey for the Golden
Fleece to Goethes character of Faust, who likewise searches for something
unattainable. Jung writes: The Golden Fleece is the coveted goal of the argosy,
*Email: robert.tyminski@sbcglobal.net
ISSN 1940-9052 print/ISSN 1940-9060 online
# 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/19409052.2011.542370
http://www.informaworld.com

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22 R. Tyminski
the perilous quest that is one of the numerous synonyms for attaining the
unattainable (Jung, 1953, para. 206). Jung comments that the search for the Golden
Fleece was beloved by the alchemists (Jung, 1953, para. 457). He explains that the
Golden Fleece posits, in alchemical terms, an inherent contradiction about an ideal
state, namely that while most metal typically rusts, gold does not because it is nonreactive with oxygen. For Jung, the Golden Fleece represents an impossible
perfection, whereas rust means something else entirely. Here, rusting is akin to
how the unconscious functions in a compensatory way to corrode idealism and
perfectionism. Both of the latter can appear psychologically in compulsive and
addictive forms. The Golden Fleece could itself be viewed as a symbol for a goal or
objective that is not meant to be actually lived out in the real world. Put another way:
we live in a world where rust occurs, and analogously, a world in which the
unconscious has tremendous power to subvert our loftiest intentions.
Jung writes in Psychology and alchemy: In the alchemical view rust, like
verdigris1, is the metals sickness (Jung, 1953, para. 207). Rust signifies the wearing
effects of reality and, along the lines of Jungs thinking, rusting leads to a state of
deflation that tarnishes the intoxicating glow of golden omnipotence. In the story of
the Golden Fleece, Jason and Medea each project onto this lustrous object. Medea
believes the Fleece will bring her an ecstatic love. Jason believes it will grant him his
birthright as king of Iolkos, situated at the head of the Gulf of Pagasai and below Mt
Pelion on the Greek mainland. Neither of them understands that the Fleece is not
meant to be taken because it symbolizes a different realm. A more classicallyoriented Jungian view might suggest that the Fleece symbolizes a real trophy or boon
to be taken by the questing hero as the climax of his journey. However, here a
different point of view will be discussed, namely that the destruction and devastation
that are unleashed by Jasons theft of the Fleece argue for consideration of what he is
not able to see: that he cannot obtain it other than by irresponsibly using Medea. The
heroic option in his case might instead have been restraint and recognition that the
Fleece shimmers with illusion and false promise.
What might this archetypal realm, fraught with illusions, tell us about
unattainable experiences in analysis? This impossible-to-realize quality typifies two
conditions of analytic work: transference and dreaming. Might a specific examination of transference dreaming show a link with the desires evoked by the Golden
Fleece? These dreams come to us in a somewhat rarified state that seems golden and
shimmering before we expose them to the rusting process of analysis. Clinical
examples of two dreams will demonstrate when unattainable desire is operative in the
transference. Additionally, a dream of Medeas from the Quest for the Golden Fleece
underscores how an archetypal aspect of the Fleece includes a warning about its
impossibility. Madness lurks within desire, and can overwhelm us. This contributes to
the uncertainty and intensity of working through transferences imbued with Fleecelike qualities. Shakespeare writes about this unattainable desire:
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe,
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 129, cited in Barnet, 1963, p. 169)

International Journal of Jungian Studies

23

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The tale of the Golden Fleece2

Jung believed that myths and ancient tales reveal enduring archetypes of the
collective unconscious. These stories frame motives, wishes and images from deep
within the psyche. Jungs accounting for their archetypal underpinnings has helped
us to appreciate their longevity through the ages, their reach across cultural
boundaries, and their inescapable grip on the human psyche. These tales also reveal
archetypes at work as universal phenomena from which we continue to learn.
One might ask, though: why even consider the myth of the Golden Fleece? Does
it provide any useful insight into the dynamics of the analytic relationship that have
not already been described elsewhere (and without the added context of a very old
story that remains mostly in popular media in significantly altered form)? I hope to
illustrate that the story of Medea and Jasons actions towards the Fleece reveals
something about how intense human feelings can override an appreciation of
illusion. I am not going to discuss delusional transferences, but rather intensely
experienced ones that acquire insistence, demand an ideal quality and have an
expectation that wishes will come true. While each analytic relationship may consist
of threads of these feelings, I want to investigate what can happen when they appear
to take over. The myth of the Golden Fleece gives a detailed example of two people
chasing something that they imagine has to conform to a fixed idea of what it should
really mean.
With this in mind, I will summarize the story of the Golden Fleece, and then
consider what it teaches us about a pursuit that one cannot set aside.
Jason hails from a Greek kingdom that has experienced internecine struggle for
generations. His uncle seized power, and Jason was sent away for his own protection;
he is abandoned, but to save his life. As a young man, he returns to his kingdom. His
uncle, Pelias, hatches a plan to get rid of Jason, who has a claim to the throne. He
offers to relinquish the throne if Jason embarks on a mission to retrieve the Golden
Fleece, and brings it back.
The Fleece belonged to a magical ram that Hermes had given to distant cousins
of Jasons, to aid them in escaping Ino, a murderous stepmother. These cousins,
Phrixos and Helle, flew away on the ram towards the east. Helle fell off into the body
of water named after her, the Hellespont or Dardanelles. Phrixos landed on the
eastern shore of the Black Sea where he sought refuge in the kingdom of Kolchis
(probably modern day Georgia), which was ruled then by Aietes. The boy sacrificed
the ram to thank the gods, and hung its Golden Fleece in a grove dedicated to Ares
where a dragon guarded it. The Golden Fleece is a sacred object, a holy tribute that
honors the gods powers.
King Aietes welcomes the Greek boy into his family, and he marries Chalkiope,
one of the kings daughters. Another daughter is Medea, who is an acolyte of Hecate,
an ancient chthonian deity, thought to be a goddess of the underworld who haunted
graveyards. Medea is knowledgeable about the natural world. She knows what can be
used for drugs and potions to treat humans. She is intelligent, devoted, and loyal to
her family.
Back in Greece, Jason accepts the mission to retrieve the Golden Fleece. He sets
sail with a team of heroes that includes Herakles (who is written out of the story
because Jason would otherwise be dwarfed by his presence), and they have many
adventures on their way east. They arrive, and Jason confronts King Aietes. In
arrogance, he simply requests to take the Fleece. Aietes is enraged, but thinks he can

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24 R. Tyminski
outsmart Jason. He devises a plan to finish him off with a contest of impossible
physical challenges.
Both Hera and Athena support Jason
Hera in part to obtain revenge on Pelias
for defiling her sanctuary. They plot to have Medea bewitched by Eros so she will
become infatuated with Jason. Medea succumbs to this desire against her will. She
provides Jason with drugs to complete the contest that her father has given him.
When Jason succeeds, the king refuses to give up the Fleece. Jason again relies on
Medeas drugs, this time to put the dragon guarding the Fleece to sleep. Together,
they steal the Golden Fleece. Without Medeas help, Jason would be nowhere.
A long journey back to Greece ensues. Apsyrtos, Medeas brother, pursues Jason
with Aietes army and nearly has them but is tricked by Medea. Jason shows himself
to be a scoundrel, who murders Apsyrtos. Several times, Jason considers abandoning
Medea now that he has the Fleece and doesnt need her. Their marriage is an
arranged affair to win passage to Jasons home. Along the way, Medea changes and
becomes the vengeful woman known today as a filicidal mother.
In this synopsis, we can see the archetypes of hero, witch, senex, coniunctio,
maiden, and shadow, to cite but some. The Fleece itself represents an archetype of a
transcendent and forbidden treasure in the tradition of the apple eaten by Adam and
Eve, Pariss apple of discord, the Holy Grail3, and Pandoras box. It tempts, invites
and accrues emotional valence of desire, envy, and irresistible curiosity. It is fraught
with danger. What can we infer from this archetype of the Fleece as it applies to
analysis? Classics scholars have commented less on the Fleece, and relatively much
more on the relationship between Jason and Medea and the epics structural
innovations (see Barkhuizen, 1979; Beye, 1969; Brye, 1991; Hunter, 1993b; Hunter,
1988; Klein, 1983; Papadopoulou, 1997; Phinney, 1967). Archaeological evidence in
the Black Sea area suggests that the Fleece legend originates from the custom of
collecting gold from streams by using sheepskins that were then hung up in trees to
dry (Ryder, 1991).
The Fleece
If the Fleece is, as Jung puts it, a synonym for attaining the unattainable (Jung,
1953, para. 206), what are the consequences of turning it into a real object to be held
materially? The Fleece is a sacred article that rescued helpless children from hostile
forces; it is not to be stolen for personal gain unless one transgresses an inviolable
boundary. It is taken through acts of treachery. Jason feels entitled to the Fleece, and
he cannot accept that Aietes has a legitimate claim to keeping it. Jason dishonestly
conspires to get the Fleece through whatever means he can, and in doing so, he
breaches the classic heroic tradition.
He wins Aietes challenge by using Medeas drugs, which make him invincible for
a day. He sounds like an amphetamine addict: A mighty force entered him,
inexpressible, without fear, and his two arms moved freely as they swelled with
bursting strength (Hunter, 1993a, p. 95). In the end, possession of the Fleece does
not improve things for either Jason or Medea. It results in their becoming ruthless
murderers. Pursuing the Fleece becomes a story of sad decline, full of unconscionable
behavior, all because it simply cannot be resisted for what it promises to bring.
Consider what role the Fleece plays in this story. It begins as an object that
attracts powerful projections. Jason sees in it the realization of his ambitions: it will
make him a king. Medea, unfortunately tricked by the goddesses (who connived to

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International Journal of Jungian Studies

25

have Eros cast a spell on her to cause her to fall for Jason), imagines it holds the way
to true love. She is enamored of a stranger, though she doesnt know him at all. She
tries to fight this attraction because it contradicts all that she values, but she cannot
overcome it. Within the psyche, Jason is like a sociopathic trickster who
compromises the ego (and consciousness). Medea stands for the helpful but
dumbstruck maiden whose cleverness sabotages the self.
The Golden Fleece symbolizes a pent-up longing, an irresistible wish, or a
desirous aspiration: none, however, intended to be actualized. Again, this notion
differs from a more classical Jungian one that might see in the Fleece the end-product
(like the lapis or hard-won treasure) of an individuation process. But I think that the
Fleece signals a different message about determining when to stop, which can often
be a painfully experienced insight. Consider a desire that is not meant to be lived out:
this could be because of human limitations, environmental obstacles, or even the
wrong timing. In analysis, these limits are encountered emotionally in the
transference, which is frequently a phenomenon that is dense with power and love.
Analysts recognize clues to the transference relationship in the clients conscious
fantasies, in slips of the tongue, in the affective tone in the room, and in reactions to
the therapeutic frame. We now understand the complexity of the transference
relationship as encompassing nearly everything that occurs in the analytic space, a
view articulated by diverse thinkers including Ferro (1999), Joseph (1989), and Jung
(1954)
representing various schools of analytic thought.
Insight into the transference relationship is heightened in transference dreams,
which transmit a bit of gold about what is happening between analyst and client.
These dreams are not yet rusted, because they come to us fresh from the clients
psyche, and are not oxidized until eroded through contact with the real world. Here,
rusting is the process of conscious exploration that a dream stimulates. Transference
dreams in their initial form are analogous to the Golden Fleece: they represent an
unattainable telos that has to be contained. How is this achieved? Perhaps a closer
look at these kinds of dreams can provide answers.

Medeas dream
Before turning to the clinical examples, I will discuss one of the dreams in The quest
for the Golden Fleece. There are three dreams: one of Medea, another of her aunt
Kirke (known to readers of The odyssey as one of Odysseuss lovers), and a final one
of an Argo crewmember, Euphemos. Kirke s dream is one of bloodshed, and it
augurs the horror awaiting Medea. Euphemos has a heroic dream of the founding of
Thera, an island today known as Santorini. However, it is Medeas dream that
reveals a distinctive complexity:
The young girl found respite from her grief in exhausted sleep which came over her as
she lay stretched on the bed. At once she was disturbed by deadly dreams, deceitful ones
such as visit someone in distress. She imagined that the stranger [Jason] undertook the
challenge, not at all because he wanted to recover the fleece
it was not for that that he
had come to Aietes city
but to take her back to his own home as his properly wedded
wife. In her dream she herself easily accomplished the challenge of the bulls, but her
parents scorned their promise because they had challenged him, not their daughter, to
yoke the bulls. From this arose a bitter dispute between her father and the strangers, and
both allowed her to choose whatever outcome her mind desired. Without thought of her
parents she immediately chose the stranger. Her parents were seized by unbearable grief

26 R. Tyminski
and cried aloud in their anger; with their scream sleep left her, and she sprang up,
quaking with fear and gazing wildly all around the walls of her room. With a struggle
she gathered again the spirit in her breast and spoke in sobs of lamentation:

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Alas, how frightening are these grim dreams! I fear that this expedition of heroes may
cause some terrible disaster. How the stranger has set my heart fluttering! Let him woo
an Achaian [Greek] girl far off among his own people: maidenhood and my parents
home should be my concern!
(Hunter, 1993a, pp. 80
81)

Subsequently, Medea is conflicted with feelings of shame because she does not want
to betray her parents, and because she is pained by her inexplicable attraction to
Jason. Her dream has an oedipal interpretation: Medea becomes powerful, defies her
parents authority, and faces the anxious prospect of their retaliation for her choice.
She separates from them in the dream by deciding on Jason. We could understand
this as a developmental step forward that moves her from adolescence into
womanhood. In adolescence, there occurs a necessary separation from parents,
who are internally de-throned, if not exactly killed off. Through growth and
individuation, a recapitulation of oedipal themes can emerge (Gee, 1991).
Alternatively, Medeas dream could be interpreted as an anxiety dream filled with
anticipatory guilt about what might lie ahead: the terrible disaster she refers to. The
dream foreshadows her role in Jasons victory in the contest, since he wins only as a
result of the drug Medea gives him. Her anxiety in the dream and her shame upon
awakening offer an affective clue that the dream is signaling a healthy admonition.
Medea realizes the dreams importance because, when awake, she feels that her
infatuation for Jason is not meant to be realized. The narrative of the dream is
interrupted by her parents scream. We might think of them in this moment as useful
parental figures warning her not to go overboard. Their scream is to make her hear
that this limit is for her safety (not to infantilize her). Finally, it is not their grief that
will cause her such anguish; rather, it will be her own grief over choosing Jason.
Medeas dream appears to warn her to leave the Fleece alone, because her love for
Jason is not real. The dream suggests that she is correct to question Jasons motives.
She wishes in the dream that he has come for her. In reality, she has heard him say
that he has come for the Fleece. The dream casts her as the heroic one yoking the
fire-breathing bulls. In reality, her father would never permit this. Yet her doing so in
the dream foretells a knowledge that Jason is not up to the task. In this regard, the
dreams warning is accurate.
Consider too that the only mention in her dream of the Fleece downplays its
relevance. Her psyche would know the value of this sacred object, and its
diminishment in the dream underscores Medeas confusion about Jason. If she
could consciously see that he desires the Fleece, not her, this confusion might pass. In
the end, she cannot heed the dreams message. She is unable to recognize what is here
unattainable: a love not meant to be, just as the taking of the Golden Fleece ought
not to be. Her mind mistakes the Fleece for something that she could trade for
everlasting love instead of seeing its archetypal signification of the impossible.
Giangrande (2000) notes that her dream depicts figments of her psyche and is
therefore deceitful. He appears to endorse the view that she is tragically in the grip
of an archetype, believing she can obtain the unattainable (i.e. deceiving herself in an
archetypal possession) and missing the relational containment that a psychic
expression of the Fleece requires.

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In a good enough analysis, this containment is available. The story of the Fleece
can be understood as an allegory that helps to delineate those times in the
transference when something unattainable might have to be viewed, named,
experienced by both participants, and never acted upon. It is not the Fleece itself
that has to be contained
the Fleece is a metaphorical screen, in the sense discussed
here, for catching the desires, projections, hopes, etc. of the client. Rather, the stormy,
unrelenting feelings that a client might develop for the analyst have to be held within
the analytic relationship (as the container). If they are similar to what Jason and
Medea feel towards the Fleece, such feelings press for discovering a reality where
wishes do come true. An integration of these desires eventually takes place when the
client becomes capable of resisting their allure so that a perspective is gained to think
about them.

Clinical examples of transference dreaming

Two clinical examples4 of transference dreams demonstrate how an unattainable
push is expressed in the analytic relationship, and requires containment in order to
be transformed. One example comes from a female client who is deep into her
analytic work after many years, whereas the other comes from a male client who
presents his initial dream to me.

Jane: later stages of the work

Jane is in her late 50s, and has been in analysis for eight years. During this time, she
divorced her husband, who afterwards lapsed into a severe mental disorder with
multiple acute crises. Jane came to realize that she had been taking care of his mental
instability through much of their marriage
she was helping him to keep his mind
together. She understood that this situation was disturbing, good for neither her nor
him. At a time when she was feeling more resolution about the end of her marriage,
she told me this dream about us.
You and I are driving in a car with two young people in the back. Im at the wheel. One
person in the back is a crazy woman like Mary, and the other is Andy. The young
woman really goes nuts. You deal with it. We drive over some dead bodies under a tarp,
and I understand it was the crazy woman who killed them. We stop down by a river.
The young people are gone. Standing by the water, you and I kiss, hug and touch
one another. We have so much to talk about. It feels so intimate and right. Later, we
drive back, and there is a sense well have to deal with how things have changed. You
give me your phone number, and Im going to write it on the front page of my
newspaper, but I cant find it.

Jane explains that Mary is a co-worker, who is overwhelming because she has poor
boundaries. Jane notes that in reality Mary is not young
she is middle-aged. With
regard to the two of us, Jane says that the feeling in the dream is that she can be
honest and forthright with me. She contrasts this feeling of being seen and heard with
how she felt ignored and neglected by a man she had recently dated. I wonder aloud
if Jane might not be idealizing me, as this has been frequent in our work, but Jane
says she does not think so. She adds that later in the dream she recognizes this is my
therapist. Her not being able to write my phone number represents for Jane a worry
that shell lose track of me as the inner therapist. Andy is her son, who is

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28 R. Tyminski
inexperienced in the world of adult relationships. Marys crimes in the dream
the
bodies under the tarp
are to Jane her own lost relationships that she feels guilty
about.
When I heard her dream, I felt attentive to Janes description of the natural
quality of our intimacy. There had been many prior dreams of Janes in which a
sexual or erotic encounter had occurred between us, and in them she felt her longing
and wish that we could have this kind of relationship to be problematic. Jane would
become angry with me in exploring these earlier dreams because right beneath her
wish was a desperate, insistent demand. This dream, instead, had the wish but also a
commentary that it was impossible. I wondered if Janes not finding the newspaper to
write down my phone number indicated a newer ease that this activity between us in
the dream was not intended for front-page publication
or in other words, for
realization. In her dream, Jane cannot find what she wants to write my number on, so
perhaps this expresses an acceptable inner limit (this is my therapist).
For Jane it was a significant step to differentiate me as she experienced me live in
her analytic work and as an inner figure with whom she wanted to remain in
communication. She felt that this was what our intimate embrace by the river
symbolized. This inner figure of her analyst assisted her with crazy feelings (as
represented by the co-worker with poor boundaries), with loss (the bodies under the
tarp), and with inexperience in certain aspects of relating (her son Andy). Jane
created this inner version of me, and while it arose from our work, she started to
become comfortable with its unattainable quality.
In subsequent sessions, Jane and I continued to discuss her dream in more detail.
She thought that the trip implied by riding in the car was a reference to her work in
therapy. In this context, the young woman (Mary) in the back seat was Jane eight
years ago, a younger Jane who felt crazy and struggled with staying emotionally
present. She further related that the bodies under the tarp represented the grieving
that she had done with me. She felt confronted with one loss after another: her
mother, her father, her dead former husband, and her ex-husband, whom she had
decided to leave in the course of our trip. The river reminded Jane of her increasing
familiarity with the unconscious as well as a growing belief that she could trust what
she was learning about intimacy. Along these lines, she understood her intention to
write down my phone number on the newspaper to mean that she needed to work at
staying aware of what she learned, in other words to publish it for her conscious
mind where the documentation would remain accessible. She joked that this
imaginary newspaper article would be titled The Intimacy Chronicles.
Janes dream shows an evolution of her erotic transference wish that this
relationship could be attained with me into something quite different. The new
element shows that her erotic desires can sustain an inner figure that is imagined as
Jane needs him to be in order to help her internally with experiences of loss, intimacy
and disappointment. Her wish is now less infused by a demand. This transference
dream seems to me to present a contrast to the theft of the Golden Fleece. Whereas
Jason and Medea were not able to withdraw their projections about the Fleece,
I think Jane was able to transform certain fantastic projections about me because
they were contained and explored through the transference. As a result, she could
create a version of me as her inner therapist. I dont want to minimize the fact that
there was a continuing erotic transference to me. But I would say that it was now
expressed as something unattainable that was held within her psyche in part by the
archetype of the Fleece.

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Alex: an initial dream

Alex is a young man in his early 30s, who is from Europe, though he has lived in the
US for ten years. He is a gay man living with a partner. There are several noteworthy
contrasts here to Jane (age, gender, sexual orientation), although for the purposes of
this discussion the most notable would be that it is Alexs initial dream in our work
together that will be presented. Initial dreams have long interested analysts. Maduro,
writing from a Jungian perspective, comments: The initial interview is the
ambiguous stimulus in response to which an initial dream reflects an individuals
psychic reality (Maduro, 1987, p. 221). He highlights the valuable, though disguised
information contained in initial dreams, which typically show great affect and
reflect the dreamers core psychic issues as well as hints of their potential resolution.
Jung writes that initial dreams are often amazingly lucid but that with the passage
of time, these dreams tend to lose their clarity (Jung, 1934, para. 313).
Alex sought me out two years ago because of a poorly boundaried relationship
with his mother that he felt intruded too much into his psyche. He reported this first
dream, presented here in summary form:
Im walking into the courtyard of an old castle. People are preparing a feast. I go into a
large hall with my father. This is where the banquet will occur. Its not clear weve been
invited. A woman who is a tradeswoman might be following us to kick us out. We have
to be careful of her.
We pass a young boy who appears to be a guard. Now its you and me
we go into
another room by walking right through a wall. Were not ghosts
how do we do it? We
sit down in the middle of the treasury. From our hearts, gemstones are coming out, one
by one, and were exchanging them. They are clear, transparent, and green. We keep
doing this until theres quite a pile. Yours are bigger than mine. It feels very special . . .
At the end, Im alone on a hill looking back at the castle. I feel heavy and very sad.

After telling me the dream, Alex voiced these associations: The feelings were very
clear. I was younger in the dream. I felt anxious around the tradeswoman
that she
might be pursuing us, threatening us. The dream feels like a wish for an ideal father

and for unconditional love from him. Its almost unbearable to talk about because it
comes with such a painful longing. Alex cried as he told me this.
Alex and I spent many sessions talking about his dream, and it became a landmark
for us in referring to how he felt when he first met me. When I heard his dream, I was
struck by many things. I wondered if it presaged how things might unfold between
Alex and me. It certainly foretold a joint exploration with hazards, a magical
exchange, and then a lonely recognition of loss, which is viewed in perspective.
While an entire article could be written about the various pieces of Alexs dream,
for this discussion I would direct our attention to three aspects:
(1) that I replace Alexs father after the ominous tradeswoman appears,
(2) that the dreamer Alex knows something is not quite real in the dream
[walking through walls], and
(3) the production of the green gemstones that we share with one another.
These components of the dream detail an arduous quest for treasure that offers
another parallel to the tale of the Golden Fleece.
The transformation of Alexs father into me seems to indicate the power of his
immediate transference to me, and his wish that I could help him escape the internal

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30 R. Tyminski
threat of an intrusive mother (the threatening tradeswoman in his dream who is also
a negative anima seeking to evict us from exploration of his psyche, which she claims
as her turf). I learned that Alexs parents divorced when he was three. After a year of
living with his father, he was sent to live with his mother, who subsequently
descended into a long bout of serious mental illness lasting into Alexs adolescence.
Although he still visited his father, to me it sounded heartbreaking that Alex had not
continued to live with him for his own well-being and stability. Unfortunately for the
young Alex, this never materialized.
We can see in Alexs dream that I am invested with the power of a father, although
it appears not to be just the personal father, but also an archetypal one with
extraordinary powers like a sorcerer-teacher from Harry Potters Hogwarts School of
Wizardry. One suspects that such a father had to be created from an archetypal level
of the psyche by the very young boy Alex to deal with the wound of his fathers
abandonment. In this regard, Alexs psyche is searching for a magical solution to a
father problem in a similar way to Jason, who endows the Fleece with a capacity to
make up for what he lost through his fathers abandonment.
The question in Alexs dream, How do we do it? (walking through walls), points
to a moment when the dreamer glimpses the magic of an archetype at work in
composing an impossible outcome. To the dreaming Alex, it does not follow that we
can walk through walls (although he does not later question our ability to produce
gemstones from our hearts). His question within the dream is similar to Jane not
being able to find the newspaper to write down my phone number on. An
inconsistency within the dream calls attention to itself to give a momentary
perspective on the impossibility of what is occurring. At the point of Alex first
telling me the dream, I wasnt sure what this question could mean. I speculated then
that his wondering about our walking through walls possibly referred to another
question Alex might have had about how to feel substantial in a relationship with a
man who to Alex appeared so powerful.
The creation of the green gemstones in the dream is a curious endeavor that
involved an exchange of material coming right from the heart. I think for Alex and
me, this is where we approached the Fleece, so to speak. The dreams symbolism
indicated that we had to find how to share precious parts of ourselves, parts that
would reflect deeper emotions and valued feelings that could lead to his growth,
represented by the green of the stones. At the same time, I had to remain mindful of
the power that he was investing in me, keep us focused on whatever feelings he
wanted to bring to me, and not shortcut whatever parts of his father dilemma he
wanted to lay at my door. The poles of this powerful father transference (savior vs.
abandoning parent) were both expressed in our work together. A seeming refusal to
engage could throw Alex into despair or rage, and oftentimes he perceived these
refusals where none was intended. This important back and forth movement in his
feelings towards me helped him to ground the unattainable impossibility of what he
sweetly desired. This occurred in our work on the transference but also in an opening
within his psyche for a place of appreciation for the Fleece archetype.
Alex agreed that sharing his true feelings with another man was new for him,
difficult at times, and especially hard in face of his anger and hate. In our second year
of working together, Alex said to me: Ive never had so many feelings that I was
aware of. Unlike the manic Jason, Alex was able to tolerate his disappointments
over my perceived failings. Alex gradually came to see that the idealized father of his
dream, with his extraordinary powers, was an image that could never be attained.

International Journal of Jungian Studies

31

Later on, like in his dream, he would look back in sadness at a special place, a castle
filled with a boys wishes and hopes where we journeyed together.

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Discussion
Dreams reveal which central conflicts and core complexes are active at given
moments in our lives. Jung especially emphasized the dynamism inherent to dreams,
whose contents are true symbols that ought not to be interpreted semiotically
(Jung, 1934, para. 339). He advocated openness about what a dream means and
resisted simplistic categorizations. He believed the significance of a dream emerged in
analysis as a mutual undertaking: Understanding should therefore be understanding
in the sense of an agreement which is the fruit of joint reflection (Jung, 1934, para.
314). This represents an intersubjective view of dream work that was far ahead of its
time.
The clinical material supports the pivotal role of transference dreaming for
understanding the analytic relationship. Highly charged projections infuse the
transference with unattainable qualities. The Golden Fleece signifies a charged and
sacred object that offers an archetypal configuration for the tempting allure of such
experience. Transference dreaming could be regarded as an instance in analysis that
opens the door to exploring Fleece-like aspects of a clients projections onto the
analyst. These can, for example, represent impossible hopes and wishes for sexual
intimacy, emotional fulfillment and power. The application of the myth to the
clinical material helps to illuminate what happens with an insistent transference wish
that possesses an aspect of the demand for the wish to come true. Unlike with the
theft of the Golden Fleece, this demand is thwarted or frustrated within the analytic
relationship. But, the myth also points out the considerable danger that accompanies
such wishes, particularly for their mobilizing destructive and self-destructive forces in
the psyche. After stealing the Fleece, Jason and Medea leave a trail of betrayal,
deception and murder in their wake.
How can analysts assist their clients in tolerating these inner forces, which seem
to collapse any room for illusion? Metaphorically put: is the client able to resist an
urge to steal the Fleece, the theft of which enacts the discharge of an archetypal
experience into the real world? Jane was in a unique place after several years of
analytic work, because she had developed an inner version of me to provide helpful
internal containment. Her inner therapist helped her to reflect on her desires, the
ways she chose to express them, and her reactions to the responses she received from
men. Alex, by comparison, was close to the very beginning of his analytic journey.
Therefore, we had to sort through a complicated series of disappointments and
upsets that he had over my actual and imagined failures, which confirmed I had no
special powers. He struggled for a time to hold the idea that I was still someone who
could help him with a real-world corollary of the green gemstones, namely bringing
his feelings and emotions into the open, man-to-man
a form of external
containment.
The clients dreams have in common an element of the dreamer questioning
within the dream what is happening. We find an analogous incident sowing doubt in
Medeas dream, when her parents scream awakens her. Her dream attempts to warn
her not to take the Fleece, because her feelings for the man wanting it are unrealistic.
Doubt, however it arises, is the beginning of considering that something might not or
cannot happen. For instance, the missing newspaper in Janes dream and the

32 R. Tyminski

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question How do we do that? in Alexs dream indicated what exactly they each
could not have in the transference relationship: a lover to call, and a father with
magic. Those things were unattainable. Their projected feelings of love and power
had to find a place in our mutual waking awareness and, critically, not be withdrawn
completely or prematurely, because such an outcome would only have strengthened
the Fleece archetype as irresolvable. Locating a Fleece archetype within a
transference dream provides orientation for an analyst to the unspoken edges of
the existing transference relationship. I am asserting that if the grip of a Fleece
archetype is not carefully explored, defensive rigidity, uncontained discharge of a
complex, or a clinical impasse can ensue.
We might, then, ask about the analytic relationship:
(1) How much of a transference relationship do we interpret?
(2) How much of it might we instead hold quietly in an effort to contain?
(3) How can an analyst respond when there is an archetypal activation of
something unattainable that seeks fulfillment?
These are difficult questions that of course cannot be reduced to simple answers, for
they will surely vary from one analytic endeavor to the next. In my work with Jane
and Alex, I invited a discussion of our relationship from the start to encourage each
of them to have the freedom to talk about me and us in whatever manner they might
want. Early on, I probably interpreted very little about the transference, especially in
the classical sense of making a genetic or dense interpretation that referred to their
outer relationships. Instead, I elected to focus more closely on what they perceived of
me, and why each of them felt as they did. I think early transference interpretations,
owing to their emotional complexity, can undermine a developing analytic relationship, or at least burden it in unforeseen and difficult ways. They probably work best
only when offered gingerly like an unfamiliar appetizer that you would suggest a
skeptical guest at your dinner party might like to sample. In some manner,
welcoming doubt helps to support recognition of illusion.
At the beginning of an analysis, much therapeutic work unfolds through a process
of sustaining incredible tensions, noting them, and averting conclusions about
relational patterns that would seem to the client to be coming far too soon in the
undertaking. For example, with Alex, I might have commented somewhat less about
the loss of his father because it felt more important to welcome any projection or
idea he might have about me as a way of keeping his mind open to us. In contrast,
with Jane, because we had got to know one another over a longer period of time,
there were many occasions when a discussion of our relationship turned to her
mother, her father, her husband, and her brothers, although I typically followed her
lead in this. Jane and Alexs dreams about their relationships with me do show some
aspects of holding what can feel combustible and fragile. Unattainable desires for a
certain kind of love naturally have to find expression in some form, such as a dream,
to make possible a path to conscious understanding. I think a further parallel with
the myth of the Fleece is that Medea had an opportunity for such an understanding,
but was misled by an archetypal inflation that consumed her mind. She chose not to
heed her doubt, and perhaps thereby lost the ability to see an illusion.
The pressure on an analyst to respond verbally to a desire
to comment on it, to
limit it, to subtly discourage it, to label it
can be immense, particularly when the
archetypal layer of the psyche feeds too much energy into a wish (perhaps every wish

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International Journal of Jungian Studies

33

has its archetypal part). Study of myth is certainly not intended to predetermine
or encumber any clients experience. We might recall the theoretical richness that
Freud found in extrapolating the myths of Oedipus and Narcissus, and the
tremendous creative impulse that Jung found in the great myths of death and
rebirth. The story of the Golden Fleece provides a unique version of looking into
unconscious forces that push the psyche toward demanding, acting, taking, stealing,
and possessing. In some sense, if the unattainable does not become part of an
analytic discourse, we might wonder why not? If there is not a demand for taking
something from the analyst, for example his love, then perhaps something elemental
is being missed.
In the face of similar heat, the analyst has to be able to create a situation that offers
the client an alternative to the fate of Jason and Medea. In the myth of the Golden
Fleece there are no helpful parents. The older generation is either corrupt (Pelias) or
wrathful (Aietes). Absent across generations, no dialogue occurs between those swept
up in a quest and those who have the power. Thinking of this gap, we might then
imagine that an analyst seeing an impossible demand or unattainable wish must use a
form of gentle analytic strength, not overt power, to weather the effects of a
tumultuous exploration. In an application of the myth of the Golden Fleece to the
consulting room, we might hope that the client can find ways to feel an opening
through which he or she can glimpse the Fleece, without running away in fear of the
dragon guarding it, or taking it from its spot in the tree.
This containment is achieved in part as transference dreams, such as are
presented here, are discussed, amplified and explored. During this process, they
become oxidized against the purity of psyche. This more conscious form of rusting
entails an analytic process in which various characters meet up
dreamer, analyst in
the dream, and their conscious correlates. Reality (whatever that may mean) and
imagination confront one another in their own version of coniunctio. Containment
occurs primarily in an analytic relationship that securely reflects the unattainable
while allowing it to be glimpsed. Sometimes, this means not commenting directly on
a transference. At other times, a gentle, soft interpretation is necessary, not so much
for intellectual insight, but rather to enlist the clients conscious support to develop
his or her own containing capacity.
Within transference dreaming, the appearance of doubt, a question, or a warning
is significant and deserves our keen attention. A self-reflecting occurrence in a dream
often means that the client knows some of what he or she is struggling against, but
also fears, in the transference. Whether this appears as love (Jane and me kissing) or
power (my magical skill with Alex), it has the potential to assert a Fleece-like grip on
the psyche, by which we understand it to be an archetype of the unattainable. When
the Fleece archetype is indeed operative, a dreams self-reflection is a hopeful sign of
caution. The dreamer needs our help to understand something that is never meant to
be realized.
This discussion applies only to a subset of transference dreams
those in which a
Fleece-like quality of transference can be identified. It would be helpful to study how
frequently such dreams occur and, further, to know how often they demonstrate selfreflection. I am suggesting that the Fleece as an archetype can be applied to our
understanding of transference, and that in many cases the core of its unattainableness
will appear in transference dreaming.

34 R. Tyminski
Notes
1. Verdigris is the common name for the green coating or patina formed when copper, brass or
bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time. This describes the
oxidation of those metals.
2. Excellent translations include those by Green (1997), in the original epic style, and by
Hunter (1993a), shifted into prose format.
3. Interestingly, for us as Jungians, a title article in the New York Times Magazine recently
compared the Red book to the Holy Grail (Corbett, 2009).
4. Only minimal and disguised background information is given to protect client confidentiality.

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Acknowledgement
This paper is based on lectures given at the IAAP-IAJS-ETH Conference in Zurich, 2008, and
at the CNASJA Conference in Washington DC, 2009. I would like to thank John Beebe for his
help in expanding several of my main ideas. I would also like to express gratitude to the
members of a study group who supported me in the development and writing of this topic:
Lauren Cunningham, Gordon Murray, and Susan Williams.

Notes on contributor
Robert Tyminski is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. His
analytic practice with adults, children, and adolescents is located in San Francisco. He worked
as the director of the Oakes Childrens Center for 14 years, where he supervised a day
treatment program and school for children and adolescents with emotional and autism
spectrum disorders. Dr. Tyminski is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at
the University of California, San Francisco. His most recent publications are The impact of
group psychotherapy on social development in children with pervasive developmental
disorders, in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy (2008), and Fleeced:
A perspective from antiquity on contemporary addictions, in Jung Journal: Culture and
Psyche (2009).

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