(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.
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