Psychoanalytic Theory : interpretation of Dreams

1. Psychoanalytic Theory :interpretation of Dreams Presented by SinthiaCousineau

2. Freud vs Carl Jung

3. Rogers vs Freud Carl Rogers: -“While dreaming, the whole organism is undergoing a process of self-healing, similar to therapy” • -Recorded his own dreams • -Awareness of dreams is one aspect of a fully functioning person. • Developed person centered theory, focused more on self then dreams Freud: • Freud believed that dreams were a way the unconscious processed unsatisfied wishes

4. Freud • A physicist who studied neurophysiology • His goal = to discover the hidden world of the unconscious mind • He developed the therapeutic techniques that are still implemented in therapy today, such as the use of free association and transference • Interested in how sexuality affects one’s mind in particular how the sex drive can affect the death drive. • Developed the theory of the unconscious and divides the mind into three psychic structures known today as the id, ego, and super ego.

5. Freud • Freud was born in Austria on May 4th, 1856 and studied in the University of Vienna.

6. Vienna and Mental Illness • Vienna was once called “die altekaiserstadt” which meant “the old imperial city”. • Vienna is well-known as the home of the famous Sigmund Freud the founder of psychoanalytic theory. • In 1870 after Prussia defeated France, Berlin would replace Vienna as the center of the Garman-speaking world . • Due to this Vienna would turn to denial as a kind of defense, and would begin focusing more on mental illness then the world itself: “External Reality is discounted and all mental energy is turned inward” only the inner life of the individual is allowed to matter”. Bettleheim, B. (1990). Freud’s Vienna. Freud’s Vienna and other essays (pp. 1-23). New York, NY: Knopft.

7. “Vienna’s Therapy” • Inside the head of Sigmund Freud and his couch. 10 foot tall 3 sculpture

8. Psychoanalysis: To make the Unconscious Conscious • One psychological method to learn more about the human psyche. • It incorporates the use of two techniques: • Free Association (Patient) • Free Floating Attention (Analyst) • Psychotherapy is therefore a form of treatment that aims to understand a patient’s unconscious, a concept originated by Freud who aimed to create a form a treatment that involves talking with a trained professional, hence the therapist.

9. Free Association What is it? • the mental process by which one word or image may spontaneously suggest another without any apparent connection. • Free association: • is the expression of the content of consciousness without censorship as an aid in gaining access to unconscious processes. • The technique is used in psychoanalysis which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud

10. Free Floating Attention • Also called hovering attention. • A type of listening attitude by the therapist as a creative listener. • Discourages the therapist from selective and censoring what they hear. • The therapist turns their unconscious like a receptive organ toward the transmitting organ of the patient. (Freud, 1900 )

11. Dreams • A dream is a process of nightly “self” healing, or nightly “psychological adjustment”. Most people remember their dreams in a time of crisis (Koch, 2012).

12. Interpretation of Dreams • A book published by Sigmund Freud in 1899. • He introduces his theory of the unconscious in relation to dream interpretation and also discusses what will later become the theory of the Oedipus Complex. • "the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.(Strachey, 2010)"[ • Freud believed that dreams were a way the unconscious processed unsatisfied wishes.

13. Dreams • According to Freud are formed by two mental processes. • 1) unconscious forces that construct a wish that is expressed by the dream • 2)the process of censorship that forcibly distorts the expression of the wish. • Latent content: the underlying meaning of the dream. • During sleep, the unconscious condenses, displaces, and forms representations of the dream content, the latent content of which is often unrecognizable to the individual upon waking (Strachey,2010)

14. Dreams “Dreaming works both to reveal the content of the Unconscious and to expand and modify it”(Palombo, 2002, p. 161) Freud: the aim of dreams is to be satisfied of a repressed wish. He treated dreams like a language to be deciphered. To understand the meaning of a dream you have to explore: • Manifest content (what the dream tells) • Latent content (concealed meaning of dream)

15. Understanding Dreams • “It’s a distortion to think that we ever ‘know’ what a dream means; all we know is that dreams emerge from the unconscious mind and can thus help us learn about thoughts and feelings that are out of awareness.” (Cabanisset al., p. 259) • Cabaniss: Technique involves ambient listening, to begin to reflect, then filter and then focus on our listening.

16. MAKING CONNECTIONS Cabaniss suggest to better understand dreams one must focus on : • What came before the report of the dream • What came after • At what point in the session the dream was reported • Words in the dream that seem related to material surrounding the dream. • Themes in the dream that seem related to surrounding material • Concept in the dream that seemed related Cabaniss (2011) describes this understanding of the unconscious as “understanding what lies beneath the surface”. Cabaniss, D.L., Cherry, S., Douglas. C.J., & Schwartz, A. (2011).

17. Reflecting on Dreams Condensation: • Two elements in the unconscious that combine to work a single dream element. Example: I had a dream about a man. He looked like my ex-boyfriend, but he also kind of of looked like a photo of my dad in college. Displacement: • One element in the manifest dream stands for something in the latent dream Example: A manhad a dreambefore a medical test and reports the dream ‘’I had a draem last night about beinglate for my exam’’ Symbolization: An element in the manifest dream symbolizes something in the latent dream, such as a person, which, thought or idea Cabaniss, D.L., Cherry, S., Douglas. C.J., & Schwartz, A. (2011).

18. Dream work • There are 4 operations: • 1) Displacement (something represented by something else) • 2) Condensation (several images are presented buy a single image) • 3) Symbolization: transformation of latent thoughts into visual elements. • 4) Secondary elaboration to make the dream a coherent narrative. • Day’s residue? Are memory traces left by the events and psychic processes of the waking state; they are used as raw material by the dream-work that serves the wishes of the dreamer.

19. Sublimation • What is it? • is a defense mechanism, • in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse. • The displacement of libidinal and aggressive impulses • “designates processes whereby primitive urges, from the id, are transformed by the ego into complex acts that do not serve direct gratification.”(Rubin, 2016) • Can manifest itself in dreams

20. Dreams and Art • “It is not without reason that we speak of the power of art as magic” (Freud, 1913) • Dreamis a unconscious signal and art therapyisalsounconscious projection. If the client cannotbuild up the good qualityrelationshipwith the therapist, the client won’t explore theirunconsciousdream by art therapy (Chu, 2014).

21. Dream and Art Therapy • Role of Therapist= offer client an environment to explore their dream status and art material without any words in the therapy process. • Role of Client: The client uses art material to touch the dream and feel the flow of emotions and then reframe the meaning of the dream. • Role of Artwork: Allows a visual form for the dream and facilitate therapeutic relationship. • “Dream work applying in art therapy is helpful emotion release, self-empower and self-acceptance” (Chu, 2014).

22. Movies that explore the dream state • Inception (2010) • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) • Spirited Away (2001) • Vanilla Sky (2001) • Waking Life (2001) • Avatar (2009) • The Matrix (1999) • What Dreams May Come (1998)

23. Existential Art Therapy • A journey of self-discovery that is shared between the client and art therapist. • The search for meaningisaided by the art therapist’scapacity to attend to the client. • Goal: Client becomes interpreter of own dreams, and uses them to uncover a problem that needs to be fixed. Funnel Metaphor: • At each step of the process the client filters and distills the content of the dream until a summary statement of existential concern is identified and a behavioral course of action is defined (Moon, 2007). (Moon ,2007).

24. Steps • Step 1: Creation of an image of the dream • Step 2: Creation of a written record of the dream (script) • Step 3: The image is placed between art therapist and the dreamer (reads outl loud) • Step 4: Art therapist reads the script out loud to the dreamer. • Step 5: Identifying the horizons of the dreams “The art therapist then asks the dreamer to underline words or phrases in the dream script that hold a particular importance” (Moon, 2007)

25. Existential Art Therapy • Step 6: Amplification of the horizons: -art therapist documents client free associations on the horizon. • Step 7: Repeating the associations: -art therapist reads aloud notes recorded about dreamers associations. • Step 8: Clustering the horizons (finding connections between them) (Moon, 2007)

26. Existential Art Therapy • Step 9: Creation of existential statements of concern. • Step 10: Summary of statements of existential concern. • Step 11: Defining a course of action in response to the dream. • Step 12: Committing to a course of action in response to the dream. “The art therapist establishes a structure that serves strictly as a guide, recorder, and witness to the process, while the dreamer remains in control of each step of the process” (Moon, 2007)

27. My Artwork & Process • Step 1: Creation of an Image of a Dream • Here is one of my recurring nightmares depicted in a watercolor painting.

28. Step 2: Creation of written record of the dream • In one of my most recurring dreams, I wake up or had recently woken up. I take my hand and touch my teeth lightly because I feel something strange. As I touch my teeth I can feel one of them is slightly loose, and then I touch my other teeth and feel more teeth are getting loose. Then the first tooth I touch gets very loose. And Eventually more and more of my teeth get lose and I panic with the feeling I cannot control. Then my first took falls off entirely, and then the more I touch my teeth the more they all start to fall out. In the dream I panic and feel a lot of stress due to the sense that I cannot control my teeth falling out nor the urge to keep touching them.

29. Step 3: Dreamer reads script out loud Step 4: Art therapist reads script out loud

30. Step 5: Finding the horizons of the dream • In one of my most recurring dreams, I wake up or had recently woken up. I take my hand and touch my teeth lightly because I feel something strange. As I touch my teeth I can feel one of them is slightly loose, and then I touch my other teeth and feel more teeth are getting loose. Then the first tooth I touch gets very loose. And Eventually more and more of my teeth get lose and I panic with the feeling I cannot control. Then my first took falls off entirely, and then the more I touch my teeth the more they all start to fall out. In the dream I panic and feel a lot of stress due to the sense that I cannot control my teeth falling out nor the urge to keep touching them.

31. Step 6: Amplification of the Horizon • Horizon= “The art therapist then asks the dreamer to underline words or phrases in the dream script that hold a particular importance” • Waking up: I think relates to the beginning of something, or early life • Feel Something Strange: Feeling unwell….or different • Getting loose: Fear of falling apart….or lack of control and drifting off • Panic with feeling I cannot control: Anxiety • Falls off entirely: Breaking apart, losing oneself, breaking and failing

32. Step 7: Repeating the associations: - art therapist reads aloud notes recorded about dreamers associations. • Step 8: Clustering the horizons (finding connections between them) Waking up: I think relates to the beginning of something, or early life Feel Something Strange: Feeling unwell….or different Getting loose: Fear of falling apart….or lack of control and drifting off Panic with feeling I cannot control: Anxiety Falls off entirely: Breaking apart, losing oneself, breaking and failing • Clusters Associations: • Anxiety over losing control of oneself • Fear of failing and breaking apart

33. Step 9: Creation of existential statements of concern. I feel a sense of lost of control I fear losing control , it gives me a lot of anxiety I fear failure and breaking apart as a result of it I fear not having enough control over my own self • Step 10: Summary of statements of existential concern. • Step 11: Defining a course of action in response to the dream. • Trying to cope with my anxiety and accept that I may not always be in control of a situation. To learn that failure is natural and I cannot control everything and trying to always be in control can also result in losing myself more. • Step 12: Committing to a course of action in response to the dream.

34. References • Bettleheim, B. (1990). Freud’s Vienna. Freud’s Vienna and Other Essays (pp. 1-23). New York, NY: Knopft. • Cabaniss, D.L., Cherry, S., Douglas. C.J., & Schwartz, A. (2011). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A clinical manual. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (chapters 1 & 8). • Chu, H. (2014). The Study of TherapeuticEffect of Hill’sDreamWork in Art Therapy. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences 113, 68-73. • Freud, S. (1900). Interpretation of Dreams. The Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, James Strachery Ed., vol. 4 and 5. Longdon, UK: HodarthPress. • Koch, A. (2012). Situating Dreaming and Dreams in Person-Centered Theory and Practice: Cherishing client experiencing. Manchester, UK: Pccs Books. • Mitchell, S.A, & Black, M. J. (1995). Freud and beyond: A history of modern psychoanalytic thought. New York, NY: Basic Books. • Moon, B. (2007). Dialoguing with Dreams in Existential Art Therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 24 (3), 128-133. • Palombo, S.R. (2002). Theory of dreams. In E. Erwin (Ed.). The Freud encyclopedia: Theory, therapy, and culture(pp. 157-161). London, UK: Routledge.