The Interpretation of Dreams is widely used in psychotherapy. Within Jungian psychology one can affirm that the interpretation of dreams is the main tool of many analysts. But working with dreams is not a privilege for those who attend analysis sessions, there are several "tips" for those who are curious to understand their dreams, much more effective ways than to look for the meaning at the dictionary of symbols, as these give only the general meaning, which not always suits the personal history of the dreamer. For instance, a fish in a pan for some dreamers may indicate the act of 'making dinner', for others, it may be a symbol of Christianity. The meaning of the dream depends always on who has dreamed it and in which circumstance of life this was dreamed. The same dream, which is repeated a few times to the same person, may have a different meaning in each situation.

 

Dreams arouse interest from the earliest records of human existence. Since ancient times, in the pre Christian era, the Old and the New Testament, to the present day.

Freud emphasized the importance of dreams in analytical work as a crucial tool to know what is happening in the individual unconscious, and the dreams and free association are, today, very important tools of psychoanalysis.

 

Jung added, besides the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, and that in addition to repressed contents, the collective unconscious would share content inherent to all mankind, the archetypes, which we can only contact through symbols.

 

Dreams bring both personal and collective unconscious contents. The dreams can help us to understand concerns and problems of our everyday life, and lead us to a deeper reflection on the meaning of our life and of our choices.

 

Working our dreams gives us a greater awareness of ourselves, and the more awareness we have gained over our choices and desires, the greater our freedom of action because we fail to be moved by passing impulses and emotions.

 

While having professional help can be a great enabler for understanding the meaning of dreams, you can also do it alone.

 

This requires keeping a daily record of dreams, leaving a notebook beside the bed, or even record dreams with the cell phone, which nowadays is so often used as an alarm clock ... It is important to note or record the memories, as most dreams are forgotten very quickly. With this habit, even people who complain of never remembering their dreams, will begin to remember them, and after realizing that remembering the dreams can be useful, the memory becomes more easily trained.

At first it may be difficult to understand the meaning of dreams, but with the frequent annotations  we can see the recurring themes. What is our attitude in the dream? Is this consistent with our awakening attitude? How do we feel in the dream? What do we think? How do the others characters behave towards us? Are the characters acquaintances or strangers? How many? How many men? How many women? How old are they? How do you dress? How they dress? Is the dream in color ? Or black and white? What colors appear in the dream?

 

That is, make up as much questions as you can about the dream, if possible, write all of it down, paint or draw the dreamed images. This is a form of amplification. It may be difficult to have some insight  at the beginning, but gradually we learn to deal with this wonderful puzzle, which leads us to the most remote corners of our souls.

 

And do not forget that the unconscious is not just a part of our psyche that keeps the repressed contents, it is also the source of all creativity.

 

Solange Bertolotto Schneider

 

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