I've recently finished reading this book. Enjoyed it immensely but have perhaps come at it from an unusual angle...previously I have read, perhaps, 3 or 4 times, Erich Neumann's Origins and History of Consciousness which is really a kind of Symbols..., Volume Two. So also is the life work of Joseph Campbell who did much to try to weave the great story of all traditions. There is much overlap between Neumann's Origins... and Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Jung's book takes the particular fantasies of a certain woman and develops a psychological interpretation of libido being diverted from its natural object into a creative, yet universal, thematic theatre we each have within our psyches. Neumann structures the same kind of comparative material around a kind of historical progression of mythical themes across world cultures. This leaves him with a kind of narrative outline largely echoed in Campbell's work which takes as its focus the folk tale. Campbell's view is, perhaps, more of a story teller's approach and as such may be seen as the most readable version of this kind of study work. All three books really fit together and anyone who has appreciated one is recommended to pursue the others.
To me, apart from the great usefulness that this work holds for the interpretation of dreams, the study of comparative mythology that this volume partly undertakes is one of the great benefits to grow out of Jung's ideas.
Also, this book contains some of the passages where Jung develops his own distinct psychology apart from his mentor Freud.
