A picture is worth a thousand words. You've heard it too many times. It sounds old-fashioned. But a photo is really worth a thousand words If a dream is a very special picture, how much is it worth? Maybe more? Very simple picture, very simple dream? There is no doubt that their value is lower than that of complex and exquisite ones.
Or are they?
One day in my psychotherapy class, I asked these questions to my undergraduates. "This is a very simple dream of a psychotherapy client of mine a few years ago. I won't tell you anything about the client. I'll tell you his dream, and then let's see what he can discover by exploring ... OK? This is my dream.
"I'm wearing a white shirt and a purple tie."
The students just stared at me, expecting more. "No," I explained, "that's it. This is the dream. Now let's start exploring. "
Then, I lead them through a group process of freely associating with their dreams (as I described on the work and play dreams page). "Let your imagination go. Grasp every element of the dream and let your thoughts wander on it. Say what comes to mind. It's important not to censor anything. There is no right or wrong. This can be an interesting and fun exercise-although the result can sometimes be serious and powerful. Freud believed that free association bypassed the defense of rational and logical thinking and opened a deeper connection in the subconscious. It opens the door to fantasies, symbols and emotions-this is where dreams come from. "
This is a list of some associations that the students have come up with. For the purpose of this paper, I organized them to some extent, and in actual practice, these ideas appeared in a more arbitrary stream of consciousness:
Purple ... royalty, bruises, suffocation, holding your breath, sadness, blue and pink, which match purple and black very well.
Tie ... dress, work, penis symbol, tied, tied to something, strangled, restricted.
Purple tie ... stand out from the crowd, rebel and show off.
White ... clean, pure, pollution-free, "good" light.
Shirt ... The top part, covered, stuffed, stuffed shirt, pants?
White shirt ... traditional, boring, going to work, going to church, American company
White shirt and purple tie ... unusual combination, contradictory combination, very unconventional, iron really stands out.
Exhausted? ..... No one else in the dream, so quiet, nothing happened, where is the feeling?
After we finish this free association, I describe the customer to the class.
Dan was 23 when he had this dream. I would describe him as a quiet and introverted person. He is very reserved in his speech, behavior and feelings for others. Frankly speaking, people feel bored with him (white shirt). His love life and interpersonal life were stifled (draw). He has few friends and feels no connection with his family (tie again). Apart from doing his boring job (white shirt), as a low-level technician in a computer company, basically nothing happened in his quiet and plain life.
Dan's understanding of everything is very limited except the most superficial and highest-level (shirt) feature of his personality. Although on the surface he wears and behaves in a traditional way at work (white shirt), deep down he is rebellious to authority (purple tie on white shirt) and usually superior to most people (purple). He likes to think of himself as a political activist, firmly believes in the rights of abused people (purple) and feels more dependent on them than anyone else. From the outside to the inside, he is a little contradictory (white shirt with purple tie).
But none of these problems consciously drove him to treatment. What he urgently needs to discuss and solve is the fact that he is gay (purple tie). However, he doesn't know whether he wants to come out (tie). Part of him wants everyone to know, even show off and parade the fact that he is gay (purple tie on white shirt) to escape the feeling that his identity is limited and suffocated (more ties). His rebellious and unconventional side likes the idea. He does sometimes bravely try to expose his homosexuality by wearing a purple triangle, which symbolizes homosexuality to him (a combination of pink and blue).
But the other side of him (purple tie versus white shirt) is afraid to come out. He sometimes feels dirty, defiled and disgusting because he is gay. That part of him wants to be purified and redeemed in some way (white shirt). Part of the reason is that sex is a very unpleasant topic for him. He had genital surgery when he was young. He still feels unsafe, and the following is "scarred" (purple). He is ambivalent about sex. I sometimes wonder if he was sexually assaulted when he was a child (purple tie? A suffocating tie? ).
A dream, even a simple dream, is at least worth a thousand words. Freud believed that there is no limit to your analysis of a dream. You can always get deeper and deeper into these symbols, associative links and memories that produce dreams. At some deep unconscious level, any dream will spread to the infinite horizon of the emotions and thoughts that make up the individual mind ... which even goes beyond the individual psychology and constitutes all of us.
About 920 words, if not enough, you can add a short paragraph at the beginning or end.
This essay includes theory and case analysis.
I hope I can get extra points as soon as possible if I think it can still be used:)