I’m examining a dream about a favorite toddler who appeared dead
in a dream. The dreamer was so upset by the dream imagery that she had difficulty
stepping back to more clinically analyze the dream message; this dream has nothing
to do with the death of a child. Even then, it took a while before the dreamer
understood how the message related to herself. This can happen, especially when
dreams are shocking. We’re going to walk her through the whole dream analysis process
to see how her understanding eventually unfolded.
Isolating the
symbols
The first minor obstacle was dealing with the way she
related the dream. In the italicized paragraphs below, you can see that the
dream is related in its entirety in one sentence. The rest of what the dreamer
said was all commentary. When we isolate the symbols, what should we include?
This way of relating a dream is really common. Dreamers
often “set the scene” in their telling of the experience. When I walk a dreamer
through the interpretation process, I include all of the symbols—the ones
from the dream itself and the ones that come to light in
the dreamer’s commentary. The dream world and “real” life tend to get blended
in the telling of dreams, and it is all equally important. Here’s the dream as this
dreamer told it:
I have a niece who is two.
My own kids are older now, so I love to babysit for her. It brings back lots of
memories, and she’s as jolly and as fun as any child I’ve ever had contact
with. I just love being with her.
So it really upset me
when I had a nightmare about her. It was short, but I woke up in a sweat. I
don’t remember much, but the part I do remember was awful. I dreamt that I was
looking in her crib, and I saw her lying there. But she was dead.
That’s all I remember,
except that I was stunned.
Tell me about…
Now let’s take this series of symbols—from both the dream
and her commentary—and see what happens when we put them all together in the “Tell
me about it” phase of the interpretation.
* Niece: very close to
me, my own flesh and blood
* Two: young, not
formed yet
* Older kids: less
impressionable, more secure in who they are
* Babysit: I get to
spend time for a while
* Memories: I delight
in this early phase of development
* Jolly and fun: She
brings lightness to me
* Love being with: I
look forward to the experience
* Upset me: It was so
unexpected and shocking
* Nightmare: It seemed
inconceivable; it couldn’t be true
* Woke up: I was in a
state of panic
* Sweat: It was all
about fear
* Awful: It was
supremely uncomfortable
* Crib: A safe place
for a toddler to sleep
* Lying there: I knew something was wrong
* Dead: The life was
gone from her
We’ll examine these metaphoric interpretations more closely
next time.
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