A Romantic Attraction At Work: A Waking Dream (Concluding Post)

This week, we’re looking at a waking dream about a potential, romantic encounter in the workplace. Yesterday, we examined the results from the dreamer converting his symbols into metaphors. Now, we’ll reassemble the dream in its metaphoric version. While this tends to go smoothly with most dreams, in this case, the result is extraordinarily straightforward and clear.

Reassembled dream

Sometime in the past, but during no special event, I was making decisions with a part of myself. There was no pressure. This part of me is an aspect of myself that I bounce ideas off of and get inspiration from. Together we do strategic planning, and we are working on the future direction of our entire inner corporation. We work together to make necessary decisions. We’ve done it long enough that we have become a constructive team. Until now, there has been no desire for intimacy. But suddenly I feel extremely strongly drawn to this part of me. It’s an alarming distraction, and it seems to be a one-way pull. I don’t know what it means, and I don’t know what to do about it. I was becoming obsessed. I was imagining all kinds of things including dreaming about the most intimately passionate encounters. I already have a good personal, intimate relationship. I felt stuck and didn’t know how to proceed. I feel as if I’m beyond my abilities to cope. I am completely undecided. Things were much more peaceful before, and I long for that peace. At the same time, I am powerfully attracted to this situation.

Question for the dreamer

The theme is clear: There has recently been an upsurge in the dreamer’s desire to be on intimate terms with the part of himself that does the “strategic planning” for his life. He finds the intensity of this unsettling and a bit unnerving. There is also the sense that he is not fully participating in the process; it seems like a “one-way pull.” He’d like his life to go back to the peacefulness he had before, but he is also “powerfully attracted” to the new circumstance.

I asked him what he made of all this.

The dreamer’s thoughts

“This struggle has actually been going on in my mind for quite a while. What I find so amazing is that it has been perfectly described—actually, it’s been acted out—in this incident at work. I have a tendency to drift and just follow along in the patterns I’ve fallen into. I think I’ve been restless at work for quite a while, but the idea of putting in all the effort it would take to change my life seems beyond me. Still, the urge to ponder a change has definitely been growing.”

I suggested to the dreamer that, according to his dream, this pull was becoming more than an urge. I also stated directly what he was already aware of: This incident at work had nothing to do with a possible sexual affair; it was about something completely different.

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