Dreams and relevant interpretation I suggest
I am strolling in another town…. At a certain
point I stop because in the middle of the street sitting on the ground I can see somebody
that I seem to know. It is a very ugly boy, with rather a deformed face, he looks rather
like a goblin. His hair is ruffled but what induces me to think that I already know him is
the fact that his back is filled with black spots.
At that point I understand that I met him a long time ago and, even if he is so ugly, I
feel a certain liking to him as he seems to be a part of myself, belonging to me since a
long time.
Most likely it will be difficult for the mother of the previous
dream to accept the interpretation of her dream I suggested. I think so because she is
unlikely to follow a psychotherapy leading her to meet and recognize what C.G. Jung called
one’s SHADOW that is all the aspects of our personality that we ban from access to
consciousness level because we consider them "censurable".
The person that had this dream, instead, has already covered a good distance in her
psychotherapeutical course and this allows her to recognize an OWN thing, belonging to her
since a long time, in the ugly and deformed boy. In fact, it is her SHADOW. For which even
a certain liking can be felt!
It is to be noticed that the boy has BLACK SPOTS. This indicates some DIRT at UNCONSCIOUS
level as it is confirmed by the fact that they are positioned on his BACK that is a part
of the body which is not accessible to our sight (consciousness).
Such a dream represents an utterly important turning point in the
lifetime of a person inasmuch as, starting from this moment, all energies that were
previously spent-wasted to defend oneself from one’s SHADOW become available for
constructive purposes and to enjoy all pleasant aspects of life now.
And this is not all: now it is possible to draw new strength from the pile of energy owned
by the SHADOW, which is remarkable indeed.
And not only the energetic balance should be taken into consideration. At this point also
the quality of life improves because anxiety, stress and fear generating conflicts,
including the inner ones, disappear.
The golden mine of dreams…"repetita juvant"!
Dream No. 252
Published as received:
I have a recurrent dream that keeps recurring with
no apparent reason: I see an enormous wave reaching me, I fail to escape, the wave
overwhelms me and I am aware of this.
I am a girl that has no fear of water and likes the sea.
It is the typical situation experienced by anyone who has actuated the defence mechanism called REPRESSION as I have already explained on other occasions.
In this dream collection there are several dreams that it might be helpful for you to read or read again, especially dreams No. 161, 208 and 254.
Dream No. 253 I am desperate because my car had a breakdown and I do not know how to pay its repair. I look for money in my purse and I am amazed to find the 200.000 Italian lire I need to pay the repairman. But the most beautiful thing is that I notice that a cheque as well as other money is in my purse. A car represents our capacity for moving in our life. When we dream that it is broken it means that we feel we lost this capacity. In this case the situation is worsened by the belief that the necessary resources to recover it (the money to pay the repairman) are missing. But the unconscious conveys the following reassuring message: be quiet, you own all that is necessary to overcome this temporary halt and even much more than that!
If this message was conveyed by me it would have had no result,
you can believe me. On the other hand, how many times you too happened to experience a
failure when you made attempts to help a depressed person to recover his self-confidence
again! This dream, on the contrary, had the power to give an incredible "charge"
to the involved dreamer.
It can also be added that the involved patient finds both money and a cheque in her PURSE,
that is in herself as a WOMAN. A pursue, in fact, is a typical feminine symbol
(container).
Dream No. 254
Mi trovo a passeggiare per la mia cittā. Sono in corso i lavori
di ristrutturazione totale dei marciapiedi. Certo, ci vorrā molto tempo per finire ma,
finalmente, i marciapiedi saranno sistemati e si potrā camminare senza inciampare.
Durante la passeggiata incontro un vecchio amico d'infanzia che si drogava ma adesso č
diventato un medico. Ci fermiamo a parlare proprio dei lavori e notiamo che.... invece di
rifare col catrame il manto dei marciapiedi, li stanno piastrellando con delle belle
mattonelle.
Attorno c'č ancora parecchia terra da togliere ma si vede giā che stanno facendo un
ottimo lavoro, questo nuovo tipo di marciapiede darā un tocco d'eleganza all'ambiente
urbano.
During my walk I meet an old friend of my earlier days that formely was a drug addict but now he has become a doctor. We stop and start talking about the ongoing works and we notice that…instead of tarring the surface of the side-walks, they are tiling it with beautiful paving-tiles.
A lot of earth is to be taken away all around but since now it can be seen that an excellent job is being perfomed, this new type of side-walks will give a touch of elegance to the urban environment. Also in this case we meet an example of the positive-constructive stage of a psychotherapy. The dreamer is STROLLING. This indicates a relaxed, peaceful and pleasant psychic status. Now the dreamer’s attention no longer focuses on the time passing by in vain, with no improvements, but rather on the final, aimed at result, that is the rearrangement, the possibility of walking without stumbling. It is even too obvious to remark the tremendous difference between thinking that: "One never arrives" and thinking, like in this dream, that: "Some time will be required but in the end I will get what I want".
As a psychotherapist I have particularly appreciated this positive change in the dreamer’s way of thinking because for many months he had tormented me with unceasing claims such as: "But here one never arrives at the end!".
It is evident that if one stops to claim his arrival will be further delayed! On the other hand this is one of the various forms of DEFENCE we actuate not to face the "thing" we feel we have inside and that frightens us.
As in the previous dream, here too the capacity for MOVING is depicted, but here the way of moving is different, with one’s own legs, that is using one’s own energies not the energy supplied by the car engine. Now the "evil" parts (drug addict) have changed into "good" parts (doctor) and this change allows to establish an inner dialogue and contact, which was formely dodged being considered as a threat (see dream No. 252).
The final result will be even more pleasant than the dreamer
expected. In fact, the side-walks will be covered with good-looking tiles instead of the
usual "dark" tar.
Therefore, the ongoing work is excellent also under the aesthetical profile besides the
functional viewpoint.
What else can we expect from a psychotherapy? :-)
Dream No. 255
The following one is not a dream but a FLASH a
patient had in her mind. I am including it in this collection because a flash is similar
to a dream - with all connected implications - provided it really occurs suddenly and it
is NOT CONSTRUCTED.
A true flash appears suddenly on the stage of our attention and imposes itself to
consciousness due to its intrinsic conspicuousness regardless of any REASONING. This
peculiarity allows to consider a flash originating from the unconsciouness area rather
than from the consciouness area.
The involved patient had been following an analysis for many years and consequently she
had learnt how to distinguish a "mental masturbation" from a genuine flash.
___________________________
While I was reading a page of the book "The words to say it" by Marie Cardinal I had the following flash.
I go to my usual psychotherapy sitting and this time I want to play a trick to my analyst. As I walk into his room, I greet him and soon after I start inveighing against him telling him that I have had enough of him, I don’t want to listen to his hackneyed phrases and affected words any longer, he doesn’t understand a hell of the problems of other people, on the contrary he can only make their life more complicated. Then, to frighten him more, I take out a pistol and aim at him while I keep inveighing against him. I know very well that the pistol is discharged but I take much delight in seeing his terrified face. Once in a while I am holding the knife handle. This time he will have to undergo… Then, when I realize that I have well frightened him, I confess him everthing and I go and sit on the usual armchair. But I get a severe scolding which makes me suffer a lot, I feel abandoned by him, I excuse myself and beg his pardon. I cannot bear his being so angry with me!
The first thought coming to one’s mind when
reading these words is that the involved patient feels that her analyst (that is me) is
pedantic, poorly empathic, incompetent and self-important. If this was the case, it would
be rather simple, although not too gratifying for me, and all considered it wouldn’t
be worthy mentioning it here. But perhaps there is another meaning hiding beyond the
apparent one - just as in dreams, and it is worthy investigating it.
To begin with, this patient has been coming to me for various years, as I have already
stated. Is it likely thinking that she bore such a "negative" analyst under
every viewpoint for such a long time?
Let’s see, let’s try to go beyond appearances: she wanted to hit my self-esteem, she wanted to FRIGHTEN me, she inveighed at me, she TOOK much DELIGHT in seeing my terrified face and in seeing me in an UNDERGOING role, and above all she felt that, once in a while, SHE WAS HOLDING THE KNIFE HANDLE!!!
I believe that the correct interpretation key is
to be found in her last words: until that moment she had experienced her relationship with
me in terms of POWER, she saw me as the one who ORDERED, the one who KNEW, the one that
compelled her to play a PASSIVE role, the one that could afford to be SELF-CONFIDENT.
She wanted to have all these things but, knowing she lacked them, she ENVIED them in me.
And she suffered for this. And she was feeding a desire of REVENGE that was satisfied in
her flash. All this lasting until a childish attitude appears again, she cannot bear to
see her father-analyst angry and begs his pardon in order not to be abandoned by him.
The assumption that her relationship with men was dominated by her wish to exert POWER over them is confirmed by the behaviour she adopted when she was courted by men to which she would willingly make love: she denied making love to them because, she said, "Once I give in, I have nothing else left to have them at my feet, to command over them". And which POWERFUL object did she use to exert her POWER over me and frighten me? She used a PISTOL. I do not think that many words are necessary to show the phallic symbolism of a pistol and the possible reasons for her choice.
It is very hard and unlikely for a woman to have a
full orgasm during a sexual intercourse with a man until she wants to have the same kind
of POWER as men have, that is PENETRATING and PROJECTING (pistol-bullet-penis-sperm).
While we were working at this flash, in fact, my patient muttered, as if she was talking
to herself: "I have always thought that I had no problem in having orgasms but maybe
I do not know what a true orgasm is because I never had one. Until the last moment, in
fact, I am aware of all that is happening around me, even a walking fly".
Just imagine that the ancients used to call orgasm "the short death" to signify that awareness of all the world around us is completely lost during those moments of acme!
It can be added that a woman unconsciously associating a penis to a PISTOL is in no good position to fully enjoy sexual pleasure when making love to a man. This is so obvious that I will not stay on this subject.
It might be incredible but sometimes patients are glad of having a good analyst but, at the same time they might envy him hence have a grudge against him because in their opinion he owns those qualities they too would like to have but they don’t have, that is Confidence, Knowledge, Power, Equilibrium, Health, etc.
In proof of the fact that patients may ENVY their own analyst and wish to ATTACK-HIT-HUMILIATE HIM, I am reporting a story that I experienced myself. A woman I know was following an analysis that was weighing on her family balance but she never told her dreams to her analyist and used to ask me for their interpretation. When I asked the reason for her odd behaviour she textually answered me: "I am no fool, I am going to him only to show him that he is a bullshit!".
My arguments are likely to have not convinced all those that followed me so far. I am sorry, however when my patient reported me her flash my professional conscience stayed calm and the positive follow-up of the analysis showed that it could afford it.
Dream No. 256
I was standing up and was very near a small
volcano, about one and a half meter high. Boiling lava was in the volcano crater. I
managed to see the light that reflected to the top from inside the volcano, the sparks and
fire coming out of the volcano.
I was very calm and was watching this performance with interest and no fear. I had never
been near a volcano before.
We have already had several opportunities of seeing how great is
the fear of approaching the emotional conflicts bustling about inside us at unconscious
level and we have also seen that a volcano is one of the best suited symbol to express the
feeling of an impending threat, always ready to explode at any minute. Here the opposite
trend appears and as a therapist I appreciate it the more as it involves the same patient
that had dream No. 229 that I would ask you to read again.
First of all let’s note the SIZE of the volcano which is only 1 meter and a half
high. Nobody can be afraid of such a volcano, that is a "bonsai" volcano. In
fact, the patient is not scared, on the contrary he is very calm and is watching the
performance with interest. This is so true that he keeps very near the volcano. It is a
completely new situation that he never experienced before and the dreamer does not fail to
remark it.
Do you think it would be too risky to ascribe this new way of relating to one’s own emotional content to a psychotherapy?
Dream No. 257
I was in a cafe. A fellow was telling the owner to be bold, he would be successful. He added that he had made money just like that, putting together many pieces of land, one after the other. In fact, he owned several small pieces of land. He already owned some of them when he started, then he gradually bought the others. What the optimist fellow was saying did not fully convince me, nevertheless I made an effort to try and think that it was possible. Anyway, it was not natural for me, I had to convince myself.
The dreamer was a patient that, like the others,
showed to be very "impatient"… he wanted to get the result ALL AT A TIME.
It is easy to admit that this would be great but unfortunately it is not possible. On
various occasions I had pointed this out to him but he used to listen to me with a merely
polite attention, with no sign that he was truly persuaded. The same skepticism was now
appearing in his dream, so much as to lead to think that nothing had changed versus the
situation in his real life.
Maybe it was not really so, there was something new in his dream, namely his intent to
"make an effort to try and think that it was possible", the belief that he had
to convince himself. It is not too much yet, however it is a promising start.
The scene changes.
I met a fellow that reminded me of a meeting I had with him in the afternoon. I had forgotten about it but I endeavoured to show that it was not so. He would find the letter ready or I would write it down in front of him, pretending that I had already worked at it, as we had previously agreed. I was afraid though that I would fail to convince him, that he would realize that it was an expedient, something bungled on the spot.
Here again we can notice a new attitude with regard to the behaviour adopted by the dreamer in his real life. He had always endeavoured to make up for the lack of a stout life project by having frequent resort to expedients, low tricks, solutions found at the last moment, hence bungled. Up to that moment he was persuaded that his style of life "worked", now his boldness started to crumble and he was caught by the doubt that his attempts to disguise his inadequacy by having resort to twopenny-halfpenny tricks might be unsuccessful.
As I stated earlier, this dream does not show a real change yet
but rather the relevant presupposition, namely the perception that the strategies he used
to adopt would fail to work. The first condition to successfully change some behaviours
doing harm to us (that we adopt unknowingly) is to detect them, become aware of them,
bring them to our consciousness.
After this first step, the subsequent ones are very likely to follow: in fact, one thing
is to believe that a certain life style "works" and a different thing is to find
out that it fails to work and it does harm to us. In any case, it is essential to make
that first step and my patient did it in the most promising way, through a dream, that is
at unconscious level and addressing the relevant message to consciousness.
Dream No. 258
I was half-asleep and I noticed that I had set my forefinger and middle finger in a scissor shape placing them at the bottom of my penis. This is a gesture I used to do and it is connected to the idea of cutting my penis. This time, however, there was a novelty, I immediately felt a strong sense of disgust, so much that I suddenly removed my fingers.
Being half-asleep is the transition phase from being watchful to being asleep and viceversa. In those moments, thoughts, feelings and pictures that are a mix of consciousness and unconsciousness may cross our mind. The latter prevailing, I would say. For this reason this kind of material (hypnoanagogical pictures) can as well be used during analysis sittings.
Much could be written with regard to this "nearly-dream" status but I will stay on the key points. On various past occasions the involved person had fancied cutting his penis and he had tried to imagine how he would be feeling afterwards. His fancy was not stirred by senses of guilt with a consequent desire of self-punishment, but rather by a curiosity that was greatly exciting him. Homosexual trends could be imagined but this seemed not to be the case. He vaguely perceived that afterwards he would feel "better".
Working at length at this material, the
most credible assumption that emerged was that for him "cutting his penis" was
equal to RESIGNING FROM A TOO HEAVY TASK, a too binding job. This is so true that
previously he had another dream where he owned a large old building but he lived in a
colonnade overlooking a closter, like a tramp (see Dream No. 24).
In a word, to him emasculating meant SURRENDERING instead of keeping on fighting with all
the risks and fatigue connected thereto. Surrendering was therefore associated to the idea
of living easier, in a more comfortable and safer way, for this reason that fancy was
intriguing him so much.
It was evident that he would keep on feeding that fancy until he associated it to the
"EMASCULATED IS NICE" thought-feeling.
But now something has changed, his curiosity and
attraction were replaced by a "strong sense of DISGUST".
Now he no longer wished to RESIGN and, consequently, in his real life he started to adopt
a different behaviour, an increased pluck, he relinquished the defeated attitude he had
previously "chosen" and he decided to play the cards he had in his hands.
Where would he get, which was his "plafond"? Only real life could provide an answer to this question, on the other hand the important thing is not where we get, the important thing is to burn all the fuel we have available, then we will see….
Dream No. 259
During a sitting my analyst gets his trousers off
and stays with his white, fabric, shorts-styled underpants. He does so on purpose, to
offer me the opportunity to reach the core of what is frigthtening me. It is a
professional gesture, he wants me to get in contact with the feelings that the idea of a
sex-endowed man-father stirred in me.
I take my heels, I run away and I experience panic, the last and greatest fear.
Underscoring is by the patient and it clearly points out the
strength of the emotional reaction that the upsetting idea of a SEX-ENDOWED MAN-FATHER
stirred in her.
Associating an analyst to the fatherly figure belongs to general culture now, I would say.
Why was she so upset by her father’s sex that, moreover, in her dream was only implicit since underpants were always covering it? I am sorry for the skeptics that cannot believe the Oedipus complex but, at least, can we assume that she was frightened not so much by her father’s sex but rather by all that she unconsciously constructed all around it, that is her own incestuous fancies?
She was morbidly attached to her father, who died 20 year before,
as one of her previous and rather macabre dreams showed (for interpretation see Dream No.
193): she kept a bier under her bed with her father’s corpse inside and every time
she was hungry she cut a piece of him and ate it (as I use to say, Federico Fellini was a
beginner versus the incredible capacity of the unconscious for non-stop creating pictures
as rich with meanings as this one).
She experienced such a total panic that not even her awareness that a professional spirit,
that is merely therapeutical scopes, were stirring her analyst could rout it.
Let me make a joky remark: most likely a man would not dream that underpants were white, fabric, shorts-styled … he wouldn’t dream it simply because he wouldn’t take notice of it. On the contrary, in that sort of huge emotional chaos as she was experiencing she is able to notice up to three aesthetical features in her analyst’s clothes… :-)
Dream No. 260
Published as received:
Ciao,
A few days ago I had a dream that strongly struck me and I thought that the interpretation
suggested by an expert might help me to understand something more about myself. For your
information, I am experiencing a dismay period as regards my clerical work.
I am thankful to you if you decide to interpret it, I can imagine that it can be very
difficult knowing nothing more about its author.
Best wishes and compliments for the service you are offering, so helful and interesting.
Here is my dream.
From my superiors I learn that my position within the company was
degraded (which is impossible in real life). So I decide to go and claim with the staff
department. To get there I have to take a lift starting from the inside of a church. A lot
of people is praying and singing in this church and they look at me in disapproval because
I am going to a church for a different reason than praying.
While I am awaiting the lift, I am aware that I have to reach the top floor of a very high
building. At that point I remember that going up the very last floors with a lift might be
dangerous, as the lift migh fall. So I decide to take the lift up to a certain floor and
then climb the last floors on foot. But at that point I realize that the lift may reach
different places in the same building (as if it could move both horizontally besides
vertically) and I don’t know where the ladder to the top floor starts.
I stay in front of the lift without knowing what to do.
You are right, it is very difficult and often even impossible to
interpret a dream knowing nothing of the person that had it. In your dream, however, there
are some elements that can be reconducted to meanings having a general nature, that is
disregarding your personal case. I will try to point them out giving up any attempt to
investigate the overall nature of your dream.
The "superiors" staying at the top floor of a very high building would induce to
think of an incumbent, most severe, unjust, punishing Super-Ego dominating from the top
and that can not be reached. The other face of the Super-Ego might be a father having the
same characteristics.
You would like to rebel and claim against the injust treatment you had but you are not
supported by the motherly figure that, on the contrary, disapproves what you do (to
understand the Mother-Church association, consider the current expression "our MOTHER
church").
Perhaps you have one of those old-fashioned mothers, all church and submission.
In addition, you feel that your decision to go and claim entails very serious risks and
your devised stratagems cannot help. As a conclusion, you stay there DOING NOTHING and you
feel you are in a stalemate.
The same odd behaviour of a lift as in your dream was already met
in other dreams. Most likely it indicates some communication problems you have in between
what is "below" and what is "above" in your psyche. The two colored
bars of my HP moving in opposite direction mean to represent this bidirectional
communication which is however fluid and smooth, and it is not blocked as in your dream.
I cannot tell you any more.
Dream No. 261
Websurfing over the various sites I run across yours. Needless to say I immediately found it very interesting, so much that I would appreciate your opinion on a dream of mine that has been recurring lately. What can it mean?Thank you in advance for your reply.
I am at home and I notice that somebody (a thief or a criminal) is trying to enter…so I rush to check all doors and windows and without fail I find that some of them are still open…I rush up hoping to be on time to shut them… at this point usually I wake up as prey to anxiety.
Two possible meanings, as follows: 1) Fear to be
sexually raped. 2) Fear that an unconscious element which is felt as dangerous, might
break into the consciousness area overcoming any ready defence.
The problem is that these blessed defences are always and anyway insufficient, they fail
to make us feel thoroughly safe that is to grant an overall protection against the danger
represented by certain emotions pushing to emerge at consciousness level.
In case our emotions are successfully blocked at psychic level, they will discharge over
the somatic level as psychosomatic deseases, those diseases that today also physicians
recognize and admit. At least the most modern and open-minded ones.
My answer is too much on broad terms, I know, but the
"specific" meaning of this kind of dreams can be only found through a systematic
work on one’s dreams, that is through a true psychotherapy.
I want to stress once again that a lonely dream is like a tessera of a mosaic whose
content becomes clear as work goes on and new tesseras are added.
In the majority of cases dreams involving thieves are by women
and this leads to think that their most probable meaning is the one referring to the sex
sphere. In fact, the SEX=being penetrated EQUATION counts for women. If a woman wishes to
be penetrated, for her SEX = PLEASURE. If, on the contrary, a woman refuses to be
penetrated for any reason, for her SEX = FEAR, RAPE.
And thieves frighten because they ENTER inside a house in opposition to the will of its
inhabitants.
I wish to specify that I refer to a specific refusal to penetration, the one acting at
unconscious level and that may be originated, for example, by the reasons explained in a
dream I am going to publish shortly, in the meantime, you can read again dreams No. 64 and
65.
Dreaming about thieves is quite frequent, as you can see when
reading the following two dreams.
____________________
After publishing the above interpretation, the dreamer wrote to me as follows:
I have read your interpretation of my dream and I
thank you…..since I have a satisfactory relationship with my partner under the sexual
profile, I think that the second assumption is the correct one, that is your mentioning an
unconscious element that I am afraid "might break into the consciousness area".
I do not know what it is about, of course, but after reading the interpetation you
suggested to various dreams included in the "Dreams’ Showcase" I was struck
by the consideration that what is feared often turns out to be something positive, if not
valuable…
Positive and valuable is certainly the FINAL result. The
immediate result might be somewhat unpleasant on the spot but this lasts for a short while
and, in any case, it is much less dramatic than one would fear.
I refer, of course, only to what happens in the framework of a psychotherapy. A
therapist, in fact, is able to assess if and when a certain interpretation can be
suggested. In his assessment the solidity of the patient’s ego plays a key role. In
case of a weak ego, the primary task is working at strengthening it.
Now I wonder: the unconscious element I fear is indeed dangerous for my psychologic equilibrium or is it me that, considering it so, keep it apart?
You keep it apart because at unconscious level you
consider it inadmittable and, as such, dangerous for your psychologic equilibrium or, more
simply, for your self-image.
Now, is this danger OBJECTIVE or IMAGINED?
It depends on the type of patient being treated: if one deals with a psychotic subject,
the danger is objective; in case of neurotic patients, instead, it could be said that
danger is always imagined. There are also patients that are on the border line between the
two types, also with these ones it is better to be overcautious.
Could it be a side of what you call "Shadow", or the Shadow has nothing to do with this?
It certainly has to do with it, we are just talking of it!
And why does it keep pushing to "enter"?
Because of its intrinsic nature, because is
consists of DRIVES.
DRIVE means THRUST. In German "Trieb" as S. Freud called it.
Read Dream No. 265 which is very explicative in this regard.
How could I overcome my fear and accept to allow this
"thief" to enter inside the house, that is in the kingdom of awareness?
As I do not know too much of psychology, perhaps you will smile… anyway I thank you
in advance for you answer and send you my best wishes for your therapist work.
Indeed I smiled, as you anticipated….because overcoming that
fear represents the final target to which the daily work of any psychotherapist employing
my same techniques in his work aims at…. :-)
Thank you for your wishes that I wholeheartedly reciprocate.
Dreams No. 262 - 263
Published as received:
Hi, first of all my best compliments for your
site.
I came across it a few months ago, I quickly read all dream interpretations published by
you and from time to time I connect to it again to check if new dreams were added….
This time I would like to send you two dreams I had tonight. I do not know why but they
stayed in my mind for the whole day.
Thank you!
In the first dream, it seems to me that somebody came into my
house. I am afraid, I do not know exactly what to do, I believe it is only a false alarm
but I am not sure of it. So I decide to go to the lower floor to check. It was true,
somebody was hiding. A girl-friend of mine is with me. While we look at each other for a
second being silent, as if asking each other "And now?", the outsider sneaks
away and rushes to the road. At that point we follow him. My girl-friend runs after him
shouting "Stop thief! Stop thief! Stop him!" I too would like to do it, but I
seem to have no voice….
Anyway soon after the police arrives and the unknown fellow is seized. Now I feel more
calm.
In the other dream, instead, I come back home, I notice that there is something wrong (I do not know what…), I am afraid that somebody did come in. I look a little bit around, everything seems to be all right, apparently I am the only one in the house. But I do not feel at ease. Even if apparently nothing seems to be wrong, I am still afraid.
By change your dreams happened to come immediately after the one I have just interpreted. The only thing I have to do, therefore, is to ask you to read both the previous dream and its relevant interpretation.
Dream No. 264
In the evening I find myself in a place I cannot
exactly identify. Suddenly I go inside a nearby building consisting of two floors: ground
floor and a floor located half under and half above ground level. I am inclined to define
the latter one as a CRYPT.
Both floors are dark and dusty, two large rooms looking like abandoned warehouses. On the
ground floor pieces of broken bottles and old tables are scattered here and there giving
the impression that the place was already used in the past. Always in darkness or nearly
darkness (dim yellowish lights are on the ceiling and allow to scarcely see the
environment) I decide to go down to the crypt, but I am hesitating because I am afraid.
The situation and the place are extremely disquieting, especially the descent to the lower
floor, but I get there all the same, even If I always keep by the wall almost to protect
myself.
Once I am on the lower floor, always fighting against my fear that however I am not
showing, I personally speak to the Pope I do not know what about. Once he leaves the
scene, suddenly I rejoice and I keep jumping all over the crypt saying "I succeeded,
I spoke to the Pope and I had the situation under control!". In fact, it was me that
led the conversation.
I keep jumping all over the room in exultation,
even if my fear is still there. I perceive sinister, invisible presences in the room as
well as behind the so many, large, heavy wooden doors that are on the walls.
I go on with my "dance" whose moves seem to recall a tribal dance that I am
using to try and exorcize my fear.
Afterwards, always rejoicing and after spending a sufficient time in the crypt to show
that I am a brave woman, I go back to the upper floor where my persisting anxiety
decreases and I come out feeling free. I know that I will never come back inside there, as
there is no need to do it, otherwise I could do it as I have already demonstrated.
I come out again…
We are facing the nth version of the descent to
the unconscious, always the same in substance but always in a different shape inasmuch as
two perfectly equal life experiences can never be found.
In this case, first of all we notice that a descent to a FLOOR LOCATED HALF UNDER AND HALF
ABOVE GROUND LEVEL that the dreamer by instict calls CRYPT is involved.
A floor as above described indicates a situation where the unconscious is no longer buried
down there, it starts to come up to light-consciousness.
The involved woman studied Greek and she knows that CRYPT means HIDDEN as usually our
unconscious part appears to us. She also associated this word to the room located under
the altar in a church.
We know that a Church can be associated to the Mother so most likely the Pope in the dream does not indicate a male figure but the POWERFUL aspect of a dominating MOTHER thanks to her SPIRITUAL virtues (just like a Pope whose authority is not based on brute force).
At consciousness level this dominium was never perceived
(the meeting with the Pope takes place in a CRYPT, which means HIDDEN, as already
specified). However, at unconscious level it was experienced with great impatience, the
extent of which becomes clear when we learn what a great JOY-REJOYCING she feels because
she was able to FACE the Pope and LEAD the conversation.
In her dream she plays back a situation she experienced in the past ("the place was
already used in the past") but now the way she relates to her powerful mother is
completely different, even upside down, now she plays the controlling role.
It is to be noticed that the Pope leaves the scene suddenly, after she manages to
"face him" resolutely and firmly: once the test is faced and overcome, the
obstable disappears.
The change occurring in the dream reflects also in her
real life, in fact her "awkward" relationship with her mother has completely
disappeared to make room for a friendly familiarity that fills her with joy and finds her
almost incredolous yet.
There was a basic change also in the way she experienced her working life, now she is more
peaceful and bold, she can face also the "important" persons she comes in
contact with with no palpitating heart.
Her fear for drives (sinister presences) has not fully disappeared but now she can rely on
her new courage as she discovered she has. A brave fellow is somebody who feels fear but
who can master it.
She feels she will not need to repeat her braveness test as she perceives that her
conquest is "final".
Dream No. 265
…but, while I am happily laughing, my joy
irritates my mother (as it usually happens in real life), she shuts me down spoiling my
joy!
Under the puzzled sight of the present ones that have become mute I suddenly get up
feeling a tremendous rage that pushes me to grasp a wooden chair and sharply lift it up. I
am about to throw it against a wall but I am afraid that my father may violently react. I
also think that the chair is an object belonging to them and I am not entitled to break
it, so I put it down and rush to my room.
I would like to bang the door until it breaks but I refrain from doing so for the same
reasons, so I close it softly. There, shut in my room, I throw a SILENT scream and,
immedaitely after, I utter a strong "Shhhhhhhh, screaming is not allowed,
Shhhhhhhhh!".
I feel HATRED to my mother that always prevented me from SCREAMING, REJOICING, TALKING,
ENJOYING, LAUGHING!!!
P.S. I do not know whether it happened during my dream or in real life, but I have a bursting desire of shouting at the top of my voice.
Also in this case, block letters and exclamation marks are by the dreamer.
Here is a magisterial description of the arm exercise occurring
between the DRIVE that would like to come up and the PROHIBITION opposed by the Super-Ego.
This struggle involves even the deepest fibers. The dreamer is torn to pieces by a battle
where the role of the two conflicting parts is always played by himself, alternatively. In
a split second from a RAGE ready to uproariously burst he shifts to an INHIBITION saying:
"It is not possible, it cannot be done, it is not correct!" and, soon after, to
rage again.
The final result is represented by this marvellous oxymoron "SILENT SCREAM"
where the two components of the psychic drama suffered by the dreamer are both present and
melt together.
Amongst psychologists someone believes that patients shoud play back their emotions
uttering screams, beating pillows, rolling on the ground, crying and perhaps foaming at
the mouth.
As I have alredy stated, I do not like these practices. They are rather rough and, in
addition, in my opinion they allow only a "short-lived" discharge of the stacked
pressure without putting off the fire that caused the pressure to raise.
This dream shows that emotions, even
the strongest ones, can be played back in their full intensity even in a different and
more "clean" way allowing them to be ELABORATED that is integrated into the
consciousness area, thus eliminating their pathogenic potentiality that otherwise would
come back again, sooner or later.
Furthermore, a dream is a much more efficient relief valve than the so-called "acting
out" (discharging emotions through actions performed out of the sitting) because in a
dream we can also do all those aggressive actions we would never do in real life.
In a dream, for example, we can freely skin live persons, pull their eyes out or grill
them on a slow fire, etc. All this with not the least harm to the attacked person.
This dream shows that it is possible to get free from "evil" emotions making
them appear in the oneiric dimension, playing them back in their full intensity, but
without ATTACKING anybody in real life, that is without further complicating our
relationship with those living around us.
Usually - after disperding the
"explosive" component of "evil" emotions aiming at the same persons we
also very much love - "good" emotions that were formerly overwhelmed and hiding
appear.
Therefore: by attacking persons (only in dreams), in the end we love them even more than
before. This may not happen always, but it happens often. Unbelievable but true!
In this dream the above counterbalancing stage is still missing but there is the necessary
introduction to it, that is getting in contact with the "evil" emotion.
Sometimes the removal of "evil" emotions produces an hypertrophy of the opposite
polarity, love, and so we meet all the forms of "pathological" love that make
the life of our…"beloved" ones very difficult.
Dream No. 266
Hi Romano,
I was websurfing when I ran across your site, so I thought I would write to you to tell
you one of my dreams hoping you can find some time to give me a reassuring answer.
I am a … age woman, I am married and have a …age daughter.
I often happen to have this dream that leaves me rather upset when I wake up.
Thank you in advance. Ciao.
In my real life I know a woman that I quite frankly dislike. Even
thinking about her makes me tense, in fact I try to forget about her but lately I happen
to dream of her and during my dream I literally "pull" her head out but
strangely enough she does not die.
I am very shocked when I wake up. I would very much like to know if there is an
explanation to this.
Sit down and hold you tight… :-)
It deals with that part of yourself that you dislike and for which you have the same
aversion as you feel for the woman in your dream!
Very likely at conscious level you ignore which part your dream refers to, however your
dream tells you that you do have this part inside yourself. It might be a certain way of
THINKING (as you pull her HEAD out) that you try to get rid of but which is unwilling to
disappear-die.
I think you will agree that you dream cannot refer to the woman you strongly dislike in
your real life because, in this case, your reaction would be quite excessive. We do not
pull out the head of anybody only because we dislike him/her!
It should be involved something closely, very closely, connected to you and to which you attach a great importance. Only this can explain your strong reaction. If you ask me to try and guess what it is, I would be compelled to admit that I haven’t the faintest idea.
Even if I might appear boring, once again I repeat that through this site I can only interpret (when I succeed) lonely dreams. I cannot start and develop a continued conversation with the same person. It is not a matter of unpoliteness, please believe me…and my words! Everyone having even a little knowledge about psychology, knows that things are really like that.
You could tell me: "But I asked nothing!". Absolutely true, but I understand that after exciting curiosity it comes quite natural a wish to know more about it…so it is better to anticipate a question rather than rejecting an already set forth question.
Dream No. 267
I am a policeman, I discover a serial killer and try to seize him. There is a feeling of being besieged, the danger comes from the serial killer that might hit one of us, a member of my family….
Here is the nth version of the same drama: on one
side there is our "good" part (the policeman) with whom we can easily identify
ourself, on the other side there is our "evil" part that in this case is
particularly "evil" as it is represented by a SERIAL killer, that is a murderer
killing not only once but MANY TIMES and following a "planned" schedule.
It is to be noticed that this "evil" drive aims at one of the members of the
dreamer’s family. This detail is not new to anybody who followed me so far and that
has therefore read more than one dream of this kind.
We are not frightened by aggressiveness itself or aiming at strangers, rather by
aggressiveness aiming at the same persons we also very much love, as I have already
stated.
Dream No. 268
For the first time in my life I dream that while I make love to a man he is above me. Making love is beautiful, it is natural. I experience delightful feelings but I never reach an orgasm because at a certain point I feel him as dangerous, I perceive him as an enemy. I am afraid of him, he might kill me. More exactly, I perceive his penis as a weapon that might kill me, a metal weapon.
(This is the dream I had announced since Dream No. 261).
Until that moment this patient disliked her partner staying ABOVE
her when they made love. In her perception she was compelled to stay UNDERNEATH, that is
to be subject and victim of an attack.
Now her istinctive reaction starts to change, she feels that making love is beautiful and
natural, regardless of the mutual position. But the change is only partial, in fact later
on the former reaction appears again.
In any such a case, patients feel that nothing changed, so a therapist needs to stress that any change occurs gradually: 5 steps forward and 3 steps backwards. Two steps are gained but patients do not see them as their attention is attracted by the 3 steps made in the former direction, also because they would like to get rid of their suffering all at a time. And who wouldn’t like it?
While we were working at this dream, the involved
patient sketched out two figures of a penis on a piece of paper: the first one
representing the organ as suggested by her feelings, the other one representing the organ
as seen by her rational part.
Under each figure she listed the words she was associating thereto. Here is the result:
Sharp, Metal, Cold,
Dangerous, Threatening, Attacking, Deathly.
Round, Made of flesh, Soft, Warm, Friendly, Vulnerable, Giving life, Giving pleasure.
At this point it was easy to guess that the dreamer
had undergone a negative experience with the male figure but the true question to be asked
was: "If the male figure has been so "evil" for her, why had she moved evil
on his "penis"?
Somebody among you will think: "Well this extension is natural and inevitable to happen!".
Actually, this extension is not so granted and automatic as it might seem at first sight, there are women that do not make it, in fact they can have satisfactory sexual intercourses even with men that are violent, "quick-handed" to them [mind…it is not a proposal! :-)].
My assumption in this case was that she had
extended male "quick-handed" aggressiveness to men’s phallus because she
had experienced a violent father and, at the same time, a strong Oedipus complex to be
still overcome was linking her to him.
As a matter of fact, her father used to get drunk and when he was back home, he used to
hit her mother and her.
Actually a very explicit sexual-Oedipus complex had emerged from some dreams she had in
the past.
Working in this direction, the patient got little by little free from this strongly
negative conditioning and started to have "natural" sexual intercourses with
men.
P.S. - What do you think. Shall I have to move my site to the "EROTIC" section? :-)
Dream No. 269
Now that I have taken the "porn" path, I
will never stop! :-)
Here is what a young female patient told me during a sitting:
Yesterday it was a stab to me to hear a man saying this sentence: "CUNT IS LIKE A CUT"
Block letters are not by me, she used them when I
asked her to write the sentence on a piece of paper. It is not a dream but these words
perfectly match the material we have examined above since also in this case they disclose
the presence of a very serious problem at sexual identity level.
Earlier the way a woman can imagine the male sex organ was involved. Here, instead, the
way a woman can imagine her own sex organ is involved.
As I said, a "problem" is involved. Why should this
young woman feel such a strong and unpleasant feeling (she uses the word
"stab")?
If she was persuaded that she had something valuable "there", the words of that
man would have created no problem to her or she might have thought: "Poor fool, you
understood nothing!".
It seems evident to me that she was struck by those words because they evoked an image or a feeling that was already present inside her and that appeared when, as a child, she started to compare what she could see in the middle of boys’ legs and what she could see in the middle of her legs: something that seemed to be a CUT, exactly.
Many women spent their time and efforts to deny
that there is an envy of penis. A story like this alone is sufficient to show that they
are wrong, they are trying to deny evidence.
Other women admit that there is an envy of penis but they mean an envy of the POWER in the
hands of men not an envy of that very "piece of flesh".
This is certainly true for some women but the dream I am talking about shows that some women experience also a Disappointmemt-Mortification-Humiliation starting to appear even before the problem of POWER rises in a child. In fact, power is an "abstract" concept and after the studies made by J. Piaget we know that during their first years of life children can only reason of concepts relating to CONCRETE things, that is things they can see and touch. And a cut is something that can be seen and touched. Power is not! And a cut immediately recalls the idea of PAIN, WOUND, AMPUTATION.
In hearing the sentence worded by that man the patient
experiences a terrible feeling rooted in her initial stage of life when there is no
capacity for making a "abstract reasoning" yet and, on the contrary, there is
the simple, elementary, primary idea of OWING or NOT-OWNING a concrete thing.
On the other hand, anybody having some familiarity with children knows which strong
competition the possess of a simple piece of paper may arouse amongst them. Just imagine
the importance and value a girl can attach to something belonging to her body! A thing
that, she thinks she owned but that somebody stole from her through a violent action that
left an inequivocable mark in between her legs, a cut-wound.
I wish to specify that I am not saying that all women
feel this envy. I am only saying that some women do. Out of these, some succeed in
counterbalancing it by reaching various types of targets.
Other women, instead, keep it throughout their life and this can generate great problems
to their partners unless these women get married to men that let them have a free control
of the "RUDDER" (!!!)
The following dreams are by women that did not manage yet to heal their wound, the cut.
Dream No. 270
I dreamt that I had a sort of protuberance in between my legs. Do you remind a mushroom with no cap?
Dream No. 271
I had a fishing rod in between my legs, the type that can become longer or shorter, telescopic type. But there was a man taking it with his fingers, on its top, moving it up and down with a scornful and kidding smile.
Dream No. 272
I was flying at a few meters from ground, over a side-walk, and I was afraid that the persons walking there might rise their head and see the enormous hole I had in between my legs.
Dream No. 273
I had a pistol working in a most strange way, the bullet fell on the ground as it came out of the barrel.
Dream No. 274
I tried to write with a pencil but every time its point inevitably broke.
Dream No. 275
I was holding a pistol in my hand but around me there were men laughing and kidding me.