Glossary: Contamination

The propensity for unconscious contents to blend with and get mixed up with each other. Part of the work of analysis is to differentiate these contents.

As these archetypal images are produced directly by the unconscious, it is not surprising that they exhibit its contamination of content to a very high degree. The best instances of this interconnection of everything with everything else can be found in dreams, which are very much nearer to the unconscious even than myths"

- CW 14, p. 293