______________________________________________________ Dream Work: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Precipitating Events The dream took place Sunday night after a difficult weekend. S described a problem her troubled adult son struggled with, her efforts to help, and her worries that the matter might ruin him. Associations • An improved mother: S’s mother had always been a source of anxiety, but in the dream, she is healthy and pleasant. Analysis The wishes fulfilled in this dream were to have a healthy mother and to appreciate and see her own healthy self. For quite some time, S discusses the problems her son is having and his progress. She relates to her desire to be a good mother. After a few moments, she rather abruptly goes on to discuss a project of her own repairing a small garden statue for a neighbor. She describes the difficulty of “restructuring the Madonna” and the surprise discovery of a previously concealed serpent and apple at the statue’s feet. When she pauses, the term “restructuring the Madonna” is pointed out and a link is made to the dream image of the improved mother. S recognizes that seeing her mother healthy and a positive figure in the dream means she can be those things as well. CONCLUSION Freud affirmed that dreams are meaningful and that they origi- nate within the dreamer. He explained that a dream results from a struggle between an unconscious wish and forces oppos- ing that wish. A dream occurs because its disguise—its manifest content—hides latent objectionable thoughts from the mind’s censoring operations. Disguised, nonsensical content reduces disturbance and permits sleep to continue. Analysis uncovers the dream’s latent meaning and reveals motives, thoughts, feel- ings, and memories otherwise unknown to the dreamer. With publication of The Interpretation of Dreams , Freud demonstrated his method, introduced psychoanalytic theory, and launched decades of research and clinical innovation.
Research supports the meaningful nature of dreams, finds neurologic evidence of wishful brain activity during dreaming, and suggests that even traumatic dreams have a wish-filling function. Divergent views within psychoanalysis enrich thera- peutic work and stimulate thought. Freud’s analysis of his own dreams set a standard still central to psychoanalytic training: to analyze, one must first undergo analysis. When interpreting a client’s dream, the clinician should consider the effects that culture, race, and technology have on the images present in dreams as well as on interpretation of the individual’s dream. Assessing and interpreting dreams should always be an open, communicative process between the psychoanalyst and the dreamer. It is important to note that dream work is not limited to psychoanalysts or therapists; any dreamer can use Freud’s method (i.e., suspend self-criticism, collect thoughts and associations clinging to dreams). Dream work can advance the therapeutic alliance, produce new insights, and build clients’ ego strength. Analysis of one’s own dreams sharpens clinical skill and promotes essential self-knowledge. Technique calls for candor from the dreamer, self-restraint from the clinician, and patience, curiosity, and hard work from both.
RESOURCES
National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanaly- sis https://naap.org International Association for the Study of Dreams https://www.asdreams.org American Psychoanalytic Association https://apsa.org
WORKS CITED https://qr2.mobi/dream-work
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EliteLearning.com/Social-Work
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