Learn all about the dreamer archetype, including definition, characteristics, examples and how it relates to the Creator archetype.
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What is the Dreamer Archetype?
The archetypal dreamer is one who can envision the future as it might be, who can dream big and think of ways to make those dreams happen, who imagines possibilities for humanity that others cannot.
The dreamers favourite words are ‘What if?’. Innately positive, they sometimes seem to live in their own world, daydreamers lost in their own imagination or ethereal realm.
They seem capable of existing in their imaginary world for endless hours, dreaming up possibilities and concepts, lost in thought. Indeed, sometimes this imaginative dream world seems preferable to them than reality.
However, the daydreaming and thinking that the archetypal dreamer indulges in is not a playful, frivolous one.
Dreamer Archetype Characteristics & Traits
- They use time to solve problems, to strategize, plan, create and to conceptualize.
- Some archetypal dreamers may dream bigger than others – some may simply be planning their next day’s activities while others may be planning to change the world.
- However, whatever it is that they are dreaming about, this is how their mind most effectively functions.
- Their mental flexibility makes them a great asset, and their ability to entertain themselves with their thoughts for hours on end makes them low maintenance.
- However, the dreamer may also feel themselves detached from reality, with its rules and conventions.
- This can lead them to struggle to fit into the structure requirements of some of societies organisations, such as workplaces and schools.
- When life disappoints the dreamer they can retreat into their imaginary world, preferring to exist their than in the cold, hard reality of human society.
Dreamer Archetype Examples
Carl Jung himself, the psychoanalyst so associated with the concept of archetypes, can be considered an archetypal dreamer:
- He was able to think deeply about the world around him and come up with new concepts and possibilities which would never occur to others.
- He was able to envision and imagine with creativity, then put the concepts he created onto paper.
- His work revolutionized psychoanalysis as a result.
Martin Luther King Jr verbalized his own dreamer character in his most famous speech, the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, made on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, in which he called for equal rights and an end to racism in the United States. Singer/songwriter John Lennon was also an archetypal dreamer, most clearly seen in his song ‘Imagine’, in which he dreams of a world without war or suffering.
Further Reading
Further reading on the dreamer archetype includes:
- Dreams – by Carl Jung
- John Lennon: The Life – by Philip Norman
- I Have a Dream – 40th Anniversary Edition: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World – by Martin Luther King and James M Washington
