The Crab
Cancer
Moving backward: the pull of the past, with a way forward hidden in it.
The Crab: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In Two Essays on Analytical Psychology Jung discusses at length a patient’s dream: about to cross a river, she is seized by the foot by a crab hidden in the water, and cannot get free. He read the crab, which walks backward, as the regressive pull of the unconscious, and interpreted the dream first on the personal level and then on the collective.
Cancer is the sign of the summer solstice, where the sun turns back, and of the moon and the mother.
The Crab: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The crab sent by Hera against Heracles as he fought the Hydra, set among the stars as Cancer; the moon’s house in astrology.
From the Sources
Jung reports a dream in which, as the dreamer tries to drag her friend out of the water and almost succeeds, a large crab seizes her by the foot and tries to pull her in.
“…she tries to drag her out, and almost succeeds, but a large crab seizes on the dreamer by the foot and tries to pull her in.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter V, "Symbolism of the Mother and of Rebirth". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Hamlet tells Polonius that he would be as young as Hamlet himself 'if like a crab you could go backward'.
“All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down. For you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.”
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene II. Project Gutenberg eBook #1524. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW 7
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Creatures of the Water
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Crab.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/crab.
Nearby in the alphabet: Coniunctio: The union of opposites in the vessel. Copper: The metal of Venus: love, beauty, and verdigris. The Creation: The world, and consciousness, coming into being. The Crocodile: The devouring jaws of the depths.