| Why should we bother with dreams? | | | | are more complicated and nuanced than what |
| Aren't dreams just nonsense...just neurons randomly | | | | positive thinking, common sense or good manners will |
| firing? | | | | endorse. |
| Evolution has selected for dreaming. | | | | We have mixed feeling about most experiences. |
| Sleep researchers tell us that all humans and many | | | | - The birth of a child brings joy but also a curtailment |
| animals dream several times every night. Dream sleep | | | | of freedom. |
| is so important that experimental subjects prevented | | | | - We love and admire our best friend but her |
| from experiencing REM sleep, the part the sleep in | | | | success makes us jealous. |
| which dreams occur, begin to hallucinate after just a | | | | - We think we want to study to be a lawyer but is it |
| couple of nights of deprivation. They effectively | | | | really our father's dream for us? |
| begin to dream when they are awake. It is that | | | | Understanding our dreams helps us understand |
| important to dream. The ability to dream has been | | | | ourselves more fully. |
| evolutionarily selected for because it serves a vital | | | | - When the conscious attitude agrees pretty well |
| function in human life. | | | | with the unconscious one, dreams will underline, |
| Human beings in all times and places have examined | | | | endorse or strengthen belief and resolve... they |
| dreams with interest and attention. Mythical and | | | | support a feeling of confidence or "rightness". |
| religious characters are portrayed as valuing and being | | | | - When consciousness overvalues a person or |
| influenced or changed by dreams. The ancient Greeks | | | | situation dreams may shrink it down to size by |
| dedicated temples and trained priests and priestesses | | | | portraying it in an unpleasant or inferior way. |
| to interpret dreams. Sigmund Freud, the originator of | | | | - When consciousness does not sufficiently value a |
| psychoanalysis, out of which developed most other | | | | person, situation or goal the unconscious may elevate |
| modern therapies, called dreams "The royal road to | | | | the idea, by symbolically representing it as |
| the unconscious" and Moses Maimonides, the famous | | | | appropriately precious. |
| Jewish philosopher is famous for saying that "A | | | | - Dreams can add new knowledge to consciousness, |
| dream unexamined is like a letter unopened" | | | | raise questions or suggest goals or things to be |
| Psychoanalyst Paul Lipmann (2008) offers us the | | | | avoided. |
| following list of what he feels that dreams offer: | | | | A picture is worth a thousand words. |
| - They state and solve problems. | | | | A huge amount of the information that we take in |
| - They express emotion... subtle and loud. | | | | about the world is visual. Almost every important |
| - They can express in images and stories those | | | | experience has a visual memory of people, places |
| feelings and experiences that are most difficult to | | | | and things attached to it. Since most life knowledge |
| think or talk about when awake. | | | | and ideas are tied up in some way with visual images, |
| - They can express hidden feelings about one's | | | | it is not really surprising that images should be the |
| relationship to powerful and less powerful others. | | | | material that the unconscious uses to represent its |
| - They can both dissociate and bind together aspects | | | | ideas. |
| of traumatic or any experience. | | | | Dream images may seem strange at first glance, but |
| - They can help cover pain and shame or can rip | | | | they are often proven on examination to be |
| apart a scab of defense. | | | | extremely accurate visual metaphors of a situation |
| - They portray our current problems, past dilemmas, | | | | which concerns the dreamer. |
| and future possibilities. | | | | A very personal point of view |
| - They gratify wishes. | | | | - There is no "one size fits all" in dream interpretation. |
| - They can give expression to the life not lived. | | | | The images in dreams are often often mysterious |
| Dreams are unconscious products. | | | | and bizarre, they may make reference to other |
| Cognitive psychologists tell us that we can hold | | | | times and places or show the dreamer as someone |
| approximately seven (plus or minus two if your | | | | entirely other that what they are in reality. |
| memory is exceptionally good or bad) "chunks" of | | | | - Dream dictionaries should be used sparingly and |
| information in our minds at once. | | | | treated mostly as sources of inspiration. |
| That is seven digits in a phone number, seven items | | | | - The dreamer is the only person who can say |
| of a grocery list. That is not very many and yet we | | | | whether an interpretation "works". |
| have access to a vast reservoir of memories, | | | | Dreams in Psychotherapy |
| concepts and emotional experiences which are called | | | | A psychologist who works with dreams in therapy |
| up effortlessly and seamlessly into that famous set | | | | draws on her knowledge of the client's life situation |
| of seven chunks. And just as seamlessly those | | | | and life history as well as her training in typical |
| concepts not in immediate use slip out and are put | | | | patterns of human response. She works with her |
| away. It's a truly amazing system when you think | | | | clients to understand the dream images in relation to |
| about it... effortless and taken for granted. But what | | | | what the client is struggling with or has experienced |
| is the mechanism that reaches down and pulls up the | | | | in life. Together they try to understand what |
| information that is needed? Most of the time it is not | | | | particular relevance and associations that these |
| "conscious intention." | | | | images have for this particular individual. |
| Unconscious processing is a natural and necessary | | | | - Dream work in therapy contributes to the process |
| part of thinking | | | | of deepening self knowledge. |
| Unconscious processing always underpins and | | | | - Understanding of the full range of their desires and |
| facilitates conscious thinking. It is the system which | | | | responses permits the client to invent new |
| receives, organizes and makes accessible all of the | | | | possibilities for action and decision... to change their life |
| concepts and experiences that we own. It is simply | | | | in ways that make their desires and their actions |
| impossible to be consciously aware of everything we | | | | more congruent. |
| know or to consciously make all the associations | | | | - Dream work deepens therapeutic intimacy and |
| between facts that we must in order to make sense | | | | creates a collaborative atmosphere between |
| of our experience. | | | | therapist and client. |
| Importantly related facts, ideas and feelings may | | | | Brief therapy centered on dreams |
| have been accumulated over a lifetime, arriving at | | | | Psychotherapeutic work with dreams may be part of |
| different times and out of different life experiences. | | | | an on-going therapy or may be helpful as a short |
| Consciousness, which is busy figuring out what to | | | | term process which focuses on understanding a |
| make for supper, rarely takes time to sniff around | | | | particular situation, for example: |
| and explore all the potential associations... even to | | | | - In periods of normal transition such as life passages, |
| pressing life problems. | | | | - In periods of crisis, |
| Fortunately we have an alternative system to do this | | | | - When difficult decisions are being considered |
| work... psychoanalysts call this the personal | | | | - When radically new life experiences must be |
| unconscious . Cognitive researchers call it "automatic | | | | assimilated. |
| processing"," implicit thought systems" or even "deep | | | | - Sometimes a particularly striking dream or dream |
| psychological processes". No one tries to pretend that | | | | series will evoke a desire to question or understand a |
| consciousness is big enough or strong to do all the | | | | current or past situation or experience. |
| work alone. | | | | At these moments it may be helpful to consider |
| When we are concerned about some aspect of our | | | | working with a psychologist or therapist who will |
| lives or relationships, the unconscious continues to | | | | provide guidance and emotional support and help |
| work on the problem while consciousness is busy | | | | steady you as you explore the questionsthat dream |
| doing other things. Anyone who has ever had an | | | | examination raises. |
| "Aha!" moment has had the experience of things | | | | Dreams are part of our system of unconscious |
| being brought together unconsciously and presented | | | | re-organization and creative problem solving. They pull |
| as a now obvious fact or solution. | | | | the essence of a problematic situation out of the |
| Sleep on it!! | | | | clutter of daily experience so we can see it more |
| The unconscious attempts to offer us larger access | | | | clearly. They remind us of what we have nearly |
| to what we know. | | | | forgotten, or of what we have tried to forget and |
| One of the main ways that the unconscious is | | | | bring together ideas that we knew separately but |
| positively integrated in our lives is through dreams. | | | | which click" and create new understanding when |
| Dreams contain attempts by the unconscious to bring | | | | brought together. They help us see what we really |
| us information and make the arguments that | | | | desire and they point the way to future possibilities |
| elaborate or counterbalance the conscious attitude. | | | | that grow out of past experiences. |
| Typically, our feelings about situations and persons | | | | |