(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.
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