The House
The structure of the psyche, lived in.
The House: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
On the voyage to America in 1909 Jung dreamt of a house he did not know, which was yet his own: a rococo upper storey, a medieval ground floor, a Roman cellar, and beneath it a cave with bones, broken pottery, and two human skulls. He later took it as a picture of the psyche’s layers, from consciousness down to the prehistoric, and as his first intimation of the collective unconscious.
From 1923 he built his own house of stone at Bollingen, the tower, and added to it over three decades, as he said he added to himself.
The House: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The temple and the body as the house of God, the many mansions of the Father’s house, the seven dwelling places of Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle, the memory palace of the orators.
From the Sources
In the saying recorded by Matthew, the one who has gone out resolves to return 'into my house from whence I came out', and finds it empty, swept and garnished.
“Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 12:43-45. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Jung writes that we naively assume we are masters in our own house, and that we must accustom ourselves to the idea that even in our most intimate psychic life we live in a kind of house, looking out on a world through its doors and windows.
“We always proceed on the naive assumption that we are masters in our own house. The first thing we have to do is to accustom ourselves to the idea that, even in our most intimate psychic life, we live in a kind of house through the doors and windows of which we look out upon a world”
C. G. Jung, M.D., LL.D., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, Part II, Chapter II (c. p. 222). Authorized translation by H. G. and C. F. Baynes; London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1928 (Internet Archive OCR text). 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
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “Sigmund Freud” and “The Tower”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Collective unconscious.
Also among Vessels and Enclosures
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The House.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/house.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Great Mother (Magna Mater) · The Dead (The ancestors, the departed) · The Sea · The Crystal (The axial system)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Hexagram: Two triangles joined: fire and water in one. The Horse: Instinctive force, which carries. Ice: Feeling frozen; life held still. Incubation: Sleeping in the sacred place to receive the healing dream.