Are Your Dreams Trying to Tell You Something?

I’ve always been interested in dreams and what they may – or may not mean. (As Freud was fond of saying, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”) It seems that the busier my daily life has gotten, the busier my “night life” has become. My dreams would be wonderful fodder for my books if I wrote fantasy, or even horror. But those are not my usual genres –though perhaps I should consider them, given the content of my dreams!

And so I decided to delve into what exactly my unconscious self was trying to get through to my conscious self, especially since my writing has been particularly unproductive the past couple of years.

For almost a year, I’ve been part of a dream group. Once a week, we meet to share and discuss our dreams. What I’ve learned may be of interest to others who’d like to mine the content of their dreams, whether for writing or for personal growth – or both. My dream group uses a Jungian method of looking at our dreams, which resonates with me because the process is similar to analyzing a story. Carl G. Jung, like Sigmund Freud, was a big believer in the tales our dreams tell.

For each dream, we look at the setting, characters, conflict, plot, images (what senses are involved), and resolution, if any. (Some dreams, like stories, have sequels.) We talk about how the dreamer felt during the dream, or upon waking. We ask questions, offer input and ideas, and discuss the dream until the dreamer hears something that rings “true” to him or her. Our group is led by a counselor who is studying to be a Jungian therapist. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, she is also a writer.

If you’d like to do some dream work, it’s a bit more complicated that getting one of those dream books in the bargain section of the bookstore. And hey, you really don’t think your dreams are that shallow, do you? Search the Internet for Jungian dream groups in your area, or, if you’d like to try some dream interpretation on your own, here is a short list from the therapist who leads our group. Start with one, and see where it takes you.

Suggested books:
Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them by Hans Bierdmann, Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson, Dreams by Carl G. Jung, and Dream Tending (audio books only) by Stephen Aizenstat.