JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION

1. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION TIM SWISHER, MHR, LMHP,LADC CERTIFIED ANALYTIC (JUNGIAN) PSYCHOTHERAPIST

2. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • What are your experiences with dreams? • Have dreams helped you in any way? • What comes to mind when you have heard or read that life is dream like? • “I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” • Chuang Tzu quote

3. When we consider the infinite variety of dreams, it is difficult to conceive that there could ever be a method or a technical procedure which would lead to an infallible result. It is, indeed, a good thing that no valid method exists, for otherwise the meaning of the dream would be limited in advance and would lose precisely that virtue which makes dreams so valuable for therapeutic purposes-their ability to offer new points of view. • So difficult is it to understand a dream that for a long time I have made it a rule, when someone tells me a dream and asks for my opinion, to say first of all to myself: “I have no idea what this dream means.” After that I can begin to examine the dream. • C. G. Jung, Collected Works

4. JUNG’S MODEL OF THE PSYCHE/PERSONALITY

5. FUNCTION OF DREAMS • The development, maintenance, regulation, restoration of psychic processes, structures and organization • To compensate and balance a lopsided psyche • Help to set up a dialogue with the unconscious • Enhance the quality and meaning in our lives

6. FUNCTION OF DREAMS • A 75 year old person will have spent 50,000 hours dreaming • This equals 2,000 days or 6 years • Nature through evolution has deemed dream necessary for some reason whether we believe dreams are helpful and meaningful or nonsensical meandering of sleep

7. FUNCTION OF DREAMS • It is characteristic that a dream never expresses itself in a logically abstract way, but always in the language of a parable or simile. This peculiarity is also is also a characteristic feature of primitive languages….Just as the body bears traces of its phylogenetic development, so also does the human mind. Hence there is nothing surprising about the possibility that the figurative language of dreams is a survival from an archaic mode of thought. • (CW, 8)

8. FUNCTION OF DREAMS • The dream is a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious. (CW, 8 • In each of us there is another whom we do not know. He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see ourselves. When, therefore, we find ourselves in a difficult situation to which there is no solution, he can sometimes kindle a light that radically alters our attitude. (CW, 10)

9. DREAMING DREAM ETIQUETTE: • Use the bed for sleeping only-no TV, eating etc. • Go to bed approx. same time and rise the same time each day. • No stimulants several hours before bedtime. • No exercising before bedtime. 5. Quite room.

10. DREAMING We dream in REM sleep and about 3-5 times a night. We enter a hypnagogic state first, filled with images and dramatic episodes. We start in NREM and move to REM Most dreaming occurs in the REM.

11. DREAMING • KEY POINTS: • 85 % dreams or subjective • Some dreams are archetypal/collective. • If we listen to our dreams and learn the language we may be less neurotic/restless. • The Alchemist says “From the unique to the unique”. • The dream is like a classical play. • Nothing can be assumed regarding the images. • The dream is not a disguise but a set of specific facts. • The dream most likely won’t tell the dreamer what to do.

12. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Tell yourself before you go to sleep that you want to remember your dreams in the morning • Have a pen a pad next to your bed-a hand held taping device will work also • When you wake don’t move-movement may cause the dream to disappear • Lay for a moment and let the dream sink into you

13. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Quickly write the dream down • Keep it simple as you can unpack the dream when you start to work with it • Write down any feelings/moods that you are experiencing • If there are immediate associations write those down too

14. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Like a classical play it has an introduction, rising action, a climax, a falling and a lysis. • The last sentence of a dream is important. It can carry the energy from the dream on. • Many dreams a part of a series. This is why keeping track of your dreams can help see patterns and “slender threads”.

15. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATIONMETHODS ASSOCIATIONS: Look at the dream as if it is a play or a drama see it as a whole event. Associations are what the dreamer thinks, feels or intuits to the images in the dream. It is not free association where one association leads to another and so on. It is of most importance that you stick with the images and make associations to them (i.e. grandparent-old, wise etc.). These associations should be about the dreamer-personal in other words.

16. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATIONMETHODS AMPLIFICATION: Amplification is where we take an Association, feeling, mood or image and start to play with it. We expand on it. Stretch it out. Move it. But stay with the image. This is where we start to get into the symbols, archetypes and themes from fairy tales and myths. As we work with dreams we have to begin to learn the language of the dream.

17. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATIONMETHODS CRISIS AND LYSIS: After associating and amplifying the dream we look for the turning point in the dream (crisis). This is often the point of the dream that stands out the most-catches your attention-draws your Curiosity to it.

18. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Look at the place, situation, building and landscape • Look at the qualities of the people, animals involved • The belief system displayed by the dream-ego • The behavior of all images • Symbolic objects, ring, house, water, cars etc. • Emotions, moods atmosphere of dream environment • Numbers, colors, or geometric patterns

19. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Once you have created a dream environment and identified all of the images as parts of your psyche you must now connect the dream to your waking life. • The dream often is connected to the previous 48-72 hours. • Finding the context for the dream and living the dream onward is very important aspect and often over looked.

20. JUNGIAN DREAM INTERPRETATION • Living with dream images can help develop a sense of an inner life. • Can help expand our consciousness and help us to become more comfortable with the complexities of life. • Conversing with dream images is called Active Imagination.