Dreams: "The screen"

(Boris - man, age 46)

Dream:

"I dreamed of a building with a lot of rooms. In my dream I was a writer and I knew that in one of the rooms I could find a story that I could later write and publish. I'm not a writer though and I actually work in school as a teacher. In order to enter this building where I could find the story to publish, I had to go through a door.

"One cannot individuate as long as one is playing a role to oneself" - Carl Jung

By the entrance there were a lot of people around who also wanted to get inside. But something was pushing us outside, as if some higher power didn't want us to get inside. I struggled but I finally made it through. There I found myself in a maze of corridors with a lot of doors to different rooms. I've been trying to find my way to the right door where I can find the story I was looking for. I felt like I was in a game where each time the timer started to count down the time to get inside the room. I knew that in case I missed my chance and stayed out in the corridor after time was up I would get caught and put myself in trouble. I have visited a few rooms but couldn't find my story. And then after another try I realised that my time was up and I got locked outside. I was captured and somebody took me to another room where I could feel that something very scary will happen. I was terrified. The room had a huge screen, and a black and white film appeared. It wasn't actually a movie on the screen but just different words written and scrolled from right to left so that I could read them. Don't remember what was written there but the whole thing was quite depressive and some other words must have been disgusting and obtrusive. I only remembered two words which I was surprised were there as they didn't quite fit among the rest. These were the names of writers. Dostoyevsky and Chekhov. I decided to undress and come closer to the screen. I knew that this would somehow strengthen the force behind the screen and make it even more scary. But I wanted to provoke it and see what would happen. When I got very close I am not sure if the screen changed or I found another one behind the one with words. I got swallowed up inside the screen and at that moment I remember hearing a child's voice somewhere in space calling out to the mother and I felt like I was in some kind of corridor that was a street in a dream, I felt like I was sliding down this street. Just before the dream ended, I felt like I slid down onto the street and was sliding along the sidewalk. I felt very cosy and good. I felt like a newborn baby."

Dream interpretation:

The dreamer's struggle of entering the building (and later the urge to enter the rooms), in fact reflects the fear of being left out. Or on the same token, the subconscious longing to belong somewhere. In the dream the force is pushing him out from the door but eventually he manages to get in. Inside he gets to play the game which rules impose the punishment for not being able to get into the right room on time. This shows how Boris (whilst coming in touch with what has been repressed) experiences the fear of being left out or perhaps anxiety from exposing something he repressed. Such a course of events may also be pointing to the expectation of being punished in general. Eventually, in the dream he gets captured to be punished. He is then taken inside the room with the screen. The big screen frightens him terribly. When the footage comes on, the only thing the dreamers see are words. He can't remember the text, only that the words are rather of “obtrusive” and “disgusting” nature. However, two of them stand out and surprise him enough that he is able to recall them after awake. Dostoevsky and Chekhov are beyond doubt the exceptional writers, and isn't that what the dreamer is searching for in his dream? The story that he could publish? Therefore we can interpret that the story that he is looking for is in fact his own story i.e. his own uniqueness hidden among the unpleasant (least to say) emotions which he repressed. This may point to what Carl Jung called an Individuation process, when one starts to develop his individual self differentiated from the universal expectations of the others. The screen represents a projection, or to be more precise it symbolically shows what has been projected on the dreamer in the past, most likely by his parents (or one of the parents). On the screen he finds the range words which reveal the trauma (and that subconsciously the dreamer is still guided by fear of being) hurt by words. He takes off his clothes, and by doing so he may be symbolically tearing off the image of himself i.e. his Persona. On the other hand, this could unveil the urge to tear off the feelings of shame associated with repressed emotions. The end of the dream shows that there are strong emotions that are (quite literally in the dream) hidden behind his fear. A strong longing to be nurtured and loved by his mother.

Dreams: "The land"

(Adrian - man, age 28)

Dream:

"In my dream, I was in the role of an observer. At first I saw a family who were living on land that was going to be sold. Something was meant to be builded where their house was. When they were outside the spaceship flew past and took their father for a ride.

“All sorts of things in this world behave like mirrors.” - Jacques Lacan

I could then see how amazing everything looked from the inside as the spaceship was rising high into the sky and further up into space. Being in space, I could see some things that happened in the past, like the moments before Kennedy's assassination. But the whole assassination event didn't seem that important and I was note even close to that. It was more about being there, at this moment and time. I saw some woman that was walking through some country fields. Her skin was almost red which seemed a bit odd but I thought that she was just tanned. After a while I saw the same woman lying on the grass in the field in the grass and her skin was blue. Then I noticed a tractor riding around that field and spraying grass with red spray, and this woman was sprayed with red paint, and I realised it was just paint and that's how she got the colour of her skin."

Dream interpretation:

The land symbolises connection to family. The idea of its selling implies the subconscious wish to relinquish the family values. With the selling, naturally comes the earnings. But, what is it that holds such value for the dreamer that would make him give up the ideals he grew up on? What is his desire? In the dream, the father of the family is taken up into space. Fathers’ are generally seen as the head of the family; which may suggest that the dreamer in fact tends to have his "head in the clouds” in day-to-day life. But that's just the one way to look at the fathers ride into space in the dream he tells. According to Lacan, the father figure in one’s life is strongly associated with the laws and constraints that control desire, and set the rules for communication with the outside world. Adrian observes how the father breaks off the ground and is taken into space. The father (the symbolic) is devoured by the fullness of the psychic life into (the imaginary) space created by the subconscious mind. In the Lacanian frame the dream points to subconscious urge to unravel from imposed order in favour of the desire. There; in the space, the dreamer is able to see the past and observe the reality before JFK's assassination. There is no universal way of interpreting dreams and they are all very personal and unique. What then came to the dreamer's mind about JFK? More than anything it was clear that JFK was an authority figure for him. The journey into space represents a detachment from reality, a journey into the world of fantasy where his father's Imago merges within the world of his personal ideals represented by JFK. Then the woman appears in his dream and he gets struck by her skin. When asked if anything came to his mind when thinking about the unusual colour of the woman's skin Adrian remembered little plastic soldiers. His favourite toy from childhood, a toy that had exactly the same shades of red and blue as were the changing colours of the body of the woman in his dream. Perhaps the dreamer, now an adult man, projects his desire on the figure of a woman, instead of the toys that he used to play with in the past, and the dream reveals a desire to free himself from the paternal influence that seems to stand in the way of what Adrian subconsciously dreams about.

DREAMS: "Promotion"

(Adrian - man, age 28)

Dream:

"I am walking around the corridors of my old high school. My friend's father (with whom I was very close at that time) got me a job there, and promoted me to the position of CEO. I am strongly convinced that I got my position only because of connections to my friend.

"There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure." - Alfred Adler

I remember that my own father used to despise people who used their connections to achieve professional goals. While I walk through the corridor I realise that the floor is freshly mopped and slippery. I go out on the balcony and I find a famous actor there. I notice a big gold necklace around his neck. A flashy kind of necklace that a celebrity would wear. We talk about something and he annoys the hell out of me. He seemed too confident and in a way I have a feeling that he despises me. I feel as if I shouldn't judge him as that's just how he is but I just dislike him. Suddenly, the floor of the balcony begins to crack and everything collapses. The man with the necklace falls down and I hang on the wall holding on to the ledge of the school building. I wake up."

Dream interpretation:

The school building symbolises repressed content in the dreamer's mind which relates to his late adolescence. Adrian in the dream (thanks to his friend's father) becomes the "CEO". The dreamer remembers that just a few months ago he actually got a promotion at the retail company where he currently works as the wearhouse manager. He also brings up an interesting association in reference to his friend's father who in the dream gave him a promotion. He notes that indeed their (his and his friend's) life paths separated right after graduation, but he still remembers his friend's father who “seemed like a successful man” to the dreamer at the time. Successful, unlike his own father. The promotion in sake of personal acquaintances uncovers suppressed anger and dissent against values ingrained in the dreamer by the dreamer’s own father. As he recalls, in his dream the floor in the school corridors is freshly mopped and slippery which resembles a fear of potential failure in his professional life. The dream in its essence refers to what happened in the dreamer's professional life recently and unveils the feelings of anxiety rooted in late adolescence, and perhaps an inferiority complex that the dreamer struggled with at the time. The dream puts a light on both the desire to change in the present life (in the face of his professional success), and the subconscious fear of potential failure which would interfere with the image of his Ego. The balcony is by definition situated above the ground and in Adrian's dream symbolises his detachment from reality which may be triggered by a latent inferiority complex that is coming to the fore in the face of recent promotion. On the balcony he meets an actor who is wearing a “flashy gold necklace”. The actor figure represents the dreamer's overblown Ego which at the end falls down when the balcony collapses. In the given context we can see that the dreamer can't fully enjoy his promotion because of the underlying feeling that he doesn't really deserve it. The wet floor at the beginning of the dream, and collapsing balcony (Ego) which ends the dream are an expression of the dreamer’s anxiety which is a subconscious reaction to his success. And the message, that he ought to keep his feet firm at the ground, and get tempted by the emotions that feed his Ego.