Dreams: "Runner"

(Adrian - man, age 29)

Dream:

"I was in space, inside a spaceship and I was dressed like a character from a science fiction movie - like Star Wars or Star-Trek. I had a shotgun in my hand. I held it pointed forward just as I was ready to shoot...

“If you look for a meaning, you'll miss everything that happens.” - Andrei Tarkovsky

The weapon somehow made me feel stronger. There was a little boy standing next to me, and I was holding his hand. Then behind my back I heard someone talking about me - "look at him, he is trying to be like some kind of a hero or something". These annoyed me because I didn't want to be seen as I am trying to pretend to be like someone. I replied: "not like a movie hero, I want to be like me, but with a gun". Then the little boy who was holding my hand suddenly ran away. I ran after him, but I couldn't find him anywhere."

Dream interpretation:

The dream came the night after one of the monthly meetings at work. At the meeting Adrian disagreed with one of his colleagues. After he took his voice publicly, his boss showed interest in what he was saying and asked him some questions. Adrian then felt nervous as he "had been put on the spot" and found it difficult to follow up and explain the point he made earlier. He said that when he spoke publicly, he felt shy and afterwards felt very frustrated that he could not explain more precisely what he meant. This real (awake) life context may with no doubt be the opening point for the dream interpretation.

Adrian is dressed up as a movie hero. The outfit embodies his Persona i.e., how he would like to be seen. He also has a shotgun, which he associates with strength. The gun in his hand in fact represents the subconscious compensation for how vulnerable he may have felt at the meeting. In his other hand, he holds the hand of a little boy who eventually, runs away from him. The boy is a symbol of what the dreamer perceives as his own weakness but on the other hand is also (and more importantly!) a symbol of creativity. Perhaps the creativity which he lacked when he was trying to express himself at the work meeting. And, quite literally, the creativity imprisoned by himself, or to be more precise, by his Persona. If we follow the dream, we will see that, Adrian dressed as a movie hero (Persona), holds the boy's hand (is holding to a certain idea of strength) and with his gun pointed forward (perhaps ready to verbally counter his colleague). The boys escape from the dreamer's own hands may resemble the essential (unconscious) wish and in fact symbolises the unspoken words during the work meeting.

Dreams: "Landscapes"

(Pascal, man - age 40)

Dream:

"I am in a nice apartment. Something catches my attention; the beautiful landscapes that extend over the edges of the room. Strangely when I came closer, I notice that it is only a very realistic-looking model of the landscape - not the real landscape as I thought. In the next part of the dream, I am in the same room, my brother is also there. I can’t help myself but feel some sort of self-importance, as if I had achieved something.

“The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.” - Sigmund Freud "The Interpretation of Dreams"

At the same time my brother seems to feel a bit uncomfortable in this flat. This is probably due to the fact, that I have lived there for a long time, unlike my brother who just moved in. The dream ends with a strange conversation over the phone. I make a phone call and tell someone (I don't remember who) what I recall as a fun fact. That is, that my wife was trying to teach a cat poo like a human, but this didn’t work out."

Dream interpretation:

The dream ends with the dreamer’s words: “My wife was trying to teach a cat poo like a human, but this didn’t work out.". According to Freud, dreams are representation of a “disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish”. That’s the reason why often, dreams at many cases appear very random. The more repressed the content is, the more disguised shapes dream may take in order to communicate it to the dreamer. Core message brought to Pascal’s attention, and ultimately his repressed wish is contained in his words mentioned above. But what would be uncovered meaning of something so bizarre, even in the context of the given dream plot? What does it really mean?

We may assume, that the room symbolically portraits the dreamer’s Ego as a whole. Pascal associated his brother’s presence in the room with conversation he had with his brother a few days before the dream. His brother mentioned something unpleasant that happened to him at work, to which the dreamer replied, “maybe it’s the time to ask for the promotion?”. Considering the feeling of self-importance that came to him in the dream, in contrast to how his brother feels i.e. “uncomfortable”. We may draw some conclusions. We may assume that his professional gives him a feeling of comfort. On the other hand, the edges of the room which are filled with fake landscapes, may symbolically show how the dreamer is becoming more conscious of his limitations. Professional position (“fake landscapes”) which he created over the years make him feel comfortable and fill his Ego with sense of self-importance. The dreamer gets surprised when he discovers that they are not real. Fake landscapes my also reveal a sense of illusion that his Ego clings to. As Freud once put it referring to the importance of the unconsciousness and its influence on everyone’s life “the ego is not master in its own house”. The dream symbolically reveal's this inner relationship, and fact that such idea of control of ones (Ego) own destiny maybe only illusory, and perhaps in the dreamer's case also limiting.

In order to get some insight on what I take, was ultimately the repressed content that the dream brought up to the Pascal’s attention. I asked him why his wife would want to teach a cat to poo like a human. “My wife" - he replied - “very often puts a lot of attention to be too proper in my opinion”. The dreamer also said that recently he had a very bad argument with her which eventually caused him to move out for a few days. He said that his wife made him feel like the person he wouldn’t think of himself - “I was angry at myself as I thought I came across small minded, and stingy”. He also said that he felt bad when he saw his wife leaving the room and calling her mother. The dreamer, unlike his wife, felt like didn’t have no one to talk to about it. His father passed away years ago, and he never had a good relationship with his mother. The dreamer’s association of an argument and the feeling of having (unlike his wife) no one to talk to, puts a different light on content of our interpretation. We may now look at the dream from different angle. Perhaps the edges of a room portraited as in the dream and see how they outline the feeling of being alone and trapped in the frames of his Ego. Dummy landscapes which frame that picture may symbolise a wall he builds around himself where the only person he can relate to is his brother and his work.

After moment’s thought something else came to the dreamer’s mind. That is, the recollection associated with the actual thought of cat trying to sit straight up like a human (in contrast to the animal's natural posture), brought up a certain memory. The dreamer as a child, had to wear a posture corrector on his back. Despite his aversions, his mother made sure he wore it regularly. The dreamer reported that he didn’t remember who he spoke with on the phone in his dream. This shows that the unconscious can only lay out its message to the dreamer in the disguise form, the only way to “fool” our-selves from our Self and not let our Ego cut it off. After all, it was unacceptable on the first place. Also, the dreamer couldn’t remember who he talked to on the phone, but what came to his mind whilst trying to recall that from his memory, was the phone call that him make to his mother. It was the first conversation he had with her in a couple of years. Perhaps his words “My wife was trying to teach a cat poo like a human, but this didn’t work out." resemble the argument that he had with his wife, which left him feel “small minded” (surrounded by the fake landscapes). The dreamer’s wish after all is, that he would have someone to talk to talk to. Perhaps he wishes that he could talk to his mother and be able tell her how he felt in the face of the awful argument he recently had with his wife.

Dreams: "Apartment"

(Carlos - man, age 36)

DREAM:

"I was reading newspaper and I came across an advert that caught my attention – “flat for sale”. I have decided to come for a viewing. When I arrived, there were also five other people who were interested in buying the flat. We all entered the elevator where two men were already waiting for us. They looked like gangsters. Dressed in black, with their faces masked. One of them held a hammer in his hand. The apartment was on one of the upper floors.

" It is joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found.” - D.W Winnicott

The elevator started going up the building. When we got there, one of the gangsters told us to approach the apartment one by one and knock on the door. If someone would knock and no one would come out, then that person would lose 25 out of 26 lives. Two women stepped out of the elevator first, followed by a man in tracksuits dressed in white. In the corridor in front of the apartment we could hear children crying. When the gangsters heard this, they seemed annoyed, and I heard one of them saying “I knew this is going to happen”. Suddenly there was chaos in the corridor. I took my chance and escaped to the upper floor. There I found an old wardrobe. There were four children inside. They told me that they had been trapped inside a wardrobe for several days. Then they started running down the stairs. At the end of the group was a little girl about three years old, she was wearing a yellow jacket and I have noticed a bloody mark of hand imprinted on her face. I was chasing after her, but I didn't make it. The girl ran downstairs before I could catch her and closed the black gate behind her. I screamed for someone to stop her because this was the last chance to find out what had happened. But there were only children around me who were ignoring me. The little girl disappeared on the other side of the gate."

DREAM INTERPRETATION:

Symbolism of the first part of the dream refers to the dreamer's Ego. Carlos is led to the apartment that he intends to buy. This may as well reflect process of building his position in the social hierarchy. Buying an apartment in a dream, may resemble achieving another goal on a professional, or private level in reality. Two masked men represent masculine side of his psyche. The hammer (construction tool) held by one of them symbolizes (generally associated with masculinity) urge to build, to create something: A position? An image? Man in a white tracksuit leaving the elevator on the other hand (of the same token) may point to the hidden need to attract attention i.e to be noticed. When the dreamer arrives, he is told that if he knocks on the door and no one comes out, he will lose "25 out of 26 lives". Such game may be allegory of the dreamer's life, that may itself be (just like the apartment in his dream) filled with emptiness. If we would assume that Carlos would knock, and no one would come out. This could as well indicate that yet another goal that his Ego is chasing would not actually be what he really desires. This fragment of the dream could also be suggesting that he may feel ignored or not heard. The loss of 25 out of 26 lives also leads to the realization that after all, there is only one life. And may be interpreted as the awareness of passing time and one’s own limitations.

The second part of the dream corresponds more with the dreamers’ feelings, which is what the children point to. Whilst hearing them in the hallway, gangsters’ get annoyed and make a comment which suggest that the dreamer's own feelings may stand in the way to achieve another goal set by his Ego or perhaps, to hold certain image of his Persona. In other words, the "hidden cry" may uncover some repressed emotions that the dreamer after all, may perceive as his own weakness. Consequently, when repressed emotions come to their voice it causes a chaos. Carlos runs upstairs, and finds children trapped in an old wardrobe. The children symbolise repressed emotions that are trapped within himself. And the girl in the yellow jacket (the same one [as the dreamer associates] as his daughter wears) whom he is chasing downstairs may suggest that his daughter may in fact be the link to the child trapped within himself.