Discesa agli inferi, trasformazione e sogno in Jung e Hillman; Descent to the underworld, transformation and dream in Jung and Hillman

Abstract The "descent to the underworld" is a topical moment of the "hero's journey" in many different cultures. The psychoanalyst C.G.Jung believes that through sleep and dream the "direct way to the unconscious", that Freud had already predicted in his first psychoanalytic writings, opens up for many patients. Dream helps to get in contact with the deepest part of our unconscious and, like the hero of the tradition, the individual who begins this exploration enters that dark, “ctonio”, infero territory, in which it is easy to lose landmarks and direction. Hillman himself spoke of the descent into the infero world, but the individual who manages to walk this inner path and not disintegrate acquires a new self-awareness and a better relationship with his own dark side.