Evaluating the “Unconscious in Dream” between Sigmund Freud and the Buddhist Tipitaka

Abstract

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and
neurologist, is best known as the founder of psychoanalysis, which has had a significant
impact on psychology, medicine, and sociology. Among the achievements of Freud, one of
the most important is the development of a three-component structural model of the psyche
(consisting of “id”, “ego” and “super-ego”). Although almost every fundamental postulate
of the Freudian theory was criticized by prominent scientists and writers, his contribution to the
creation of psychotherapy does not lose its value, and what he did is considered incomparable.
This paper presents an attempt to compare the concept of the unconscious in the dream in the works
of Sigmund Freud and in the Buddhist Tipitaka. Although it does not seem possible to find an
exact term from the Buddhist corpus to match Freud’s notion of the unconscious, there may
be some terms or a grouping of them, which come closer to it.