Rather Dreams Than Schemes
A PRIMER ON DREAM WORK
BY EVANS WITTENBERG
In my practice, I have found few therapeutic methods as revelatory and healing as dreamwork. Dreams have the capacity to take us to another place which is uncensored by our defenses, by our waking ego. Of course, when we retell the dream, the defensive processes of the ego inevitably come into play. Yet the strangeness of the dream can exceed this – leaving a remainder, a trace of the unconscious – like a footprint left in the sand by an undiscovered creature. This creature appears to come from the deepest recesses of who we feel ourselves to be, and yet can also seem totally alien to us. It is indeed a precious moment when this happens as an expansion has occurred and the unconscious itself has changed.
Not every therapist shares this philosophy regarding dreamwork. There are many, many ways to work with dreams. Certain methods might prompt the dreamer to consider each element of the dream, whether they be figures or objects as diverse parts of the “self.” Other methods might ask the dreamer to evoke scenes from the dream in real time, as if they were living the dream out in the therapist’s office. A classical Jungian approach might interpret figures, themes, and symbols as archetypes of a collective unconscious, relating your dreams to myths and fairytales. And yet still, somatic oriented therapists might focus on the affect felt within the dream, question where such affect might show up in daily life and explore how to work with it in the body. Many therapists simply listen for themes that have been previously brought up in therapy and use the dream to either emphasize or elaborate on those themes. These are just a few of the ways dreams can be used in therapy.
The method I practice is from French psychoanalysis. It regards the client’s interpretations and associations as paramount. The therapist or analyst tries to maintain a pure desire for the clients unconscious, and in doing so, creates the conditions in which the session itself becomes like a dream – ideally the client feels free to go wherever their mind wanders – inevitably it goes to someplace extremely important that could not be predicted, so long as the therapist does not interfere too much. When this happens, the client’s speech (something we pay very close attention to) breaks down and another action emerges from beyond the ego, from the unconscious. These acts work to erode unconscious conflict.
The song itself had hinges. The clasp on the eighteenth-century Bible
had hinges, which creaked; when you released the catch,
the book would sigh and expand.
The song was of two wholes joined by hinges,
and I was worried about the joining, the spaces in between
the joints, the weight of each side straining them.
-Saskia Hamilton, The Song In The Dream
Regardless of the way I like to practice, you should choose the method that sounds the most interesting to you. But a word of caution. Beware of so-called experts, whether they be therapists or authors of dream books, who tell you definitively what your dreams mean – claiming to know the truth of your unconscious. This, I argue is the least ethical approach to dreamwork because it privileges the ego of the interpreter, the author or therapist – bound as they are by culture, social status, prejudice, family dynamics, race, religious disposition, or lack thereof, scientism, politics, age, etc. And it will be the least effective for this exact reason. Meaning will be withheld in the therapist’s ego, in their interpretations, not your own. One might then identify with their therapist, and this may feel initially satisfying, but it will be superficial because the unconscious will continue to act despite such accommodations by the ego.
Try it for yourself. Keep a dream journal or simply use your phone’s note pad to take down the dream right when you wake up. I suggest setting an intention before going to bed, saying to yourself, “I am going to remember my dream.” When you awake, write it down immediately. This simple process of writing can cement the dream to memory. You may not even need to return to the note. Another method is to use your phone to record a voice memo. This is nice because the voice can capture the emotion of the dream. Do not be discouraged if at first you cannot remember your dreams. Give yourself a week or two, and I promise you will start to remember your dreams. Once you a have a dream, give yourself some space to consider it. How you interpret your dream is up to you. There is no right way, only your way.
Dreams might not have prescribed meanings, but they do have structure. Understanding that structure can open worlds. The two main processes that give dreams their symbolic structure are metaphor and metonymy (linguistic operations which Freud called condensation and displacement). We all recall metaphor from high school English. A dreamer, for example, dreams of standing in front of an enormous wall, beyond which lies something the dreamer deeply desires. Maybe for the dreamer, the enormous wall represents, via metaphor, the difficult task of asking for a raise or approaching a new love interest. Or perhaps the dreamer dreams of riding a powerful, uncontrollable horse. The dreamer may associate the horse to power, vitality, and unrestrained libido.
Metonymy on the other hand is a process of substitution. For example, a dreamer has a dream in which they are assailed by men in dark suits. In therapy the dreamer discloses the dream and then relates how a lawsuit was filed against them the previous day. A suit or lawsuit is substituted in the dream for the article of clothing by the same name. This happens all the time in dreams, but most people are not very adept at looking for it. It takes a lot of practice. Pay attention to the actual words themselves, or parts of words, and ask yourself if they could stand in for alternate meanings.
Another fascinating thing about dreams is that absurd banalities can easily play alongside the most unspeakable intimations. Dreams can be full of daily residue. Maybe you rode in a friends van the day before and, in the dream, you are in a van. You could stop at this, but it could be a good jumping off point for more associations, maybe about your friend or vans or being driven, or wherever you might go. The capacity to continue associating elements of the dream in front of another person such as your therapist or analyst, is itself a cure.
When one can follow aloud the dream into frightfully intimate spaces, it means that much repression has been lifted. Dreams can quickly take us down to, and prod, the foundations of who we believe ourselves to be – our sexuality and moral conscience for example. And for this reason, a final word of caution. If deeply traumatic themes arise in your dreams, or if you find yourself too triggered by nightmares, then by all means do not do this work alone. Find a qualified psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, or Jungian analyst to share your dreams with. Other work might need to be done first to ensure the dreamwork is safe.
One had feathers like a blood-streaked koi,
another a tail of color-coded wires.
One was a blackbird stretching orchid wings,
another a flicker with a wounded head.
All flew like leaves fluttering to escape,
bright, circulating in burning air,
and all returned when the air cleared.
One was a kingfisher trapped in its bower,
deep in the ground, miles from water.
Everything is real and everything isn’t.
Some had names and some didn’t.
Named and nameless shapes of birds,
at night my hand can touch your feathers
and then I wipe the vernix from your wings,
you who have made bright things from shadows,
you who have crossed the distances to roost in me.
-Michael Collier, Birds Appearing In A Dream
As psychotherapy has become increasingly medicalized, dreamwork has fallen out of favor. Not unlike advances in medicine, the upside is that today psychotherapy is great at treating symptoms. Interventions may be briefer, more focused, and therefore less financially burdensome. But the downside is that symptom focused treatment methods do not necessarily set out to change underlying psychic structure. Dreams lay this foundational structure bare, allowing the work to happen, albeit slowly, on the unconscious itself.
There is another way to put this. We all have certain preconceived notions of what a successful or happy life is supposed to look like. Many of these notions come with their own baggage, and in one way or another, are likely handed down to us by our parents and culture. But through dreams we can discover desires which we did not know, opening our life up to new ways of being we had not previously considered.
If you would like to schedule a consultation to work with Evans, follow the link to his website or email him here: evans.wittenberg@gmail.com
