“The unconscious is the unknown at any given moment, so it is not surprising that dreams add to the conscious psychological situation of the moment all those aspects which are essential for a totally different point of view. It is evident that this function of dreams amounts to a psychological adjustment, a compensation absolutely necessary for properly balanced action.” C.G. Jung, CW 8, ¶469
When you form a deeper relationship to the unconscious, this also helps you to relate better to other people, since you become less compelled to project your own assumptions onto them. If you can withdraw your projections, you can see other people more realistically and perhaps appreciate them more for who they actually are. When you listen deeply to a dream you are listening to an inner “other” who, knowing you better than you know yourself, is trying to tell you something that is important and also is unknown to you, either in content or as to its degree.
Together we will listen deeply to several dreams, each time testing our interpretation with an experiment. This technique will help you to learn significant aspects of dream interpretation which, in turn, may help you to listen and relate more consciously to the people in your life, both personally and professionally.
Participants will be able to:
- Distinguish between associations, explanations, and amplifications to a dream image.
- Recognize the dream’s setting and its importance.
- Describe the relationship between a dream and the dreamer’s psychological progress.
- Practice using both logic and imagination in dream analysis.
- Describe the value of ‘tolerating the anxiety’ of not interpreting prematurely.
- Recognize the need to attend to the details of each image, because each detail is meaningful.
- Recognize that active listening includes allowing the dream to tell us what it chooses, not what we want to hear.