Posted by shortelise on February 14, 2004, at 22:09:51
In reply to A Bad Dream, posted by tinydancer on February 14, 2004, at 7:16:41
A bad dream can stay with me for days.
Gestalt dream analysis does a thing where you are everything in your dream.
You'd be your son. You'd say, I am (whatever his name is). My mother (father?) has told me to leave because something terrible is happening. I don't leave because (?). I feel xyz.
I am the building. Something is shaking me, I feel xyz. The earth beneath me is moving, and I cannot withstand the movement, so I fall, collapse. A child within me is killed, I feel xyz, etc.You get the picture. And always in the present tense, not the past. BE in the dream. It is amazing how the different things in the dream can be parts of ourselves, and can spell out exactly what's going on. It is fascinating, and for me can sometimes take the horror out of a nightmare. I mean, when I break it down in other terms, it seems to be more an expression of my Self than any kind of presentiment.
To be a little more precise, say I dream I am sitting in a cafe drinking a cup of coffee and a dog comes to the table and says hello.
I am the dog. I am minding my own business when I see ShortE at a table in the cafe. I feel so happy to see her. I go in and I say hello. She stares at me, and won't answer. I am so hurt, wonder how I have offended her.
I am the cup of coffee. I am hot and sweet and being comsumed by ShortE. I feel glad.
I am ShortE. I am drinking a delicious cup of coffee, I feel good. A dog comes and speaks to me, says hello and I am frightened. I think I have gone crazy to be spoken to by a dog.It's hard to do, especially hard to be the things. But I have found that when I am able to think of myself as the various things, then I can really make sense of sometimes senseless seeming dreams.
Even thought I see a psychiatrist who doesn't practice gestalt, I use this method for figuring out dreams.
ShortE
poster:shortelise
thread:313151
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040211/msgs/313430.html