photo courtesy of medicalbag.com
A woman asked me about a dream she had, one that she thought
was amusing. In the dream, she was visited by two male cousins—long deceased—with
whom she had always been close.
She and I isolated the important symbols. Then I asked her
to “Tell me about…” each one. All of us make associations with the images that
come into our lives, and the first step in dream interpretation is to discover
the associations we have with our own dream symbols. By giving the neutral
prompt, “Tell me about it,” I nudge the dreamer into discussing her
associations, hopefully without prejudicing her with my own opinions.
Tell me about…
* Cousins: People I’m related to—family.
* Very close to them: We shared a great deal. I could trust them
with my most personal thoughts. We also enjoyed each other’s company.
* Fox hunt: It’s a
stylized sport for snobby people. Everybody gets dressed up, but it’s actually
brutal.
* Texan scene and mood: Rough and tumble. Full of testosterone.
* Pacific Northwest: Rainy, softer, gentler.
* Amusement park: A place to blow off steam. It’s a place to
have fun. It’s a silly diversion that doesn’t last long.
* Test your skill: You see how good you are at something. You’re
held up to a standard.
* No fox: The fox is the victim in a fox hunt. A bunch
of dogs and men gang up on him in impossible odds. It’s really unfair. So, having no
fox is a good thing.
* Hounds: Dogs. Noisy. Hunters. Can be really nice, but
they have an instinct to pursue prey, and they can be killers.
* Frank is dead: He’s gone. He’s no longer in my life.
* No words: We can’t communicate in the normal way.
* Takes my hand: It’s a gesture of support and affection.
* White hound: Unusual. Special. There’s a sense of purity
about it.
* Married: Bonded to a special person in your life.
Together for keeps.
* Lillian: My aunt, but kind of like a second mother to
me. She was someone I loved to be around.
* Free man: There was something in the way he said it
that I found vaguely disturbing—almost as if there'd been some kind of an
incident that separated them. I definitely had the feeling that there was more
to the story than he was letting on.
Some observations
The dreamer thought her dream was going to be amusing.
Certainly, the imagery is odd and surreal as is so often the case with dreams.
But if you just read her comments above—the ones that are not highlighted—you begin
to sense that there is an undercurrent of ambivalence: First, there’s a sense
of closeness expressed. But then there is something about being brutal and “full
of testosterone.” This is followed by talk of an instinct to pursue prey. And
at the end, there is the most telling comment of all: “I definitely had the
feeling that there was more to the story…”
We’ll put it all together on Friday.
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