Horror, adventure, love story or a wise parable — dreams are so different. And all of them can help us navigate in real life. There are many ways to interpret them, and many can be useful in working with them on your own. Psychologist Kevin Anderson provides case studies and advice for those who are interested in understanding their dreams.
“I’ve been having very strange dreams lately. It’s not really nightmares, it’s just that I’m dreaming something so incomprehensible that I start to doubt if everything is all right with me. For example, I recently dreamed that at the wake someone said to me: “I can’t believe that you went to the cemetery alone. It is known that a severed hand in a cemetery decomposes and emits poisonous gases. Do I need to look for meaning in such rubbish? I know that psychologists consider dreams significant, but they scare me, ”said one of the clients to psychotherapist Kevin Anderson.
Many scientists would call dreams stories formed as a result of the random activity of brain cells during sleep. But this view is no more plausible than Freud’s claim that dreams are a gateway to the unconscious. Experts are still arguing about whether dreams mean something important and, if so, what exactly. However, no one denies that dreams are part of our experience. Anderson believes that we are free to think creatively about them in order to draw conclusions, grow or heal.
For about 35 years, he has listened to the stories of patients about their dreams and never ceases to be amazed at the amazing wisdom that the unconscious broadcasts through personalized dramas, known to us as dreams. One of his clients was a man who constantly compared himself to his father. In his dream, he ended up on top of a skyscraper in order to look at his father and see that he … is again above. Then he turned to his mother standing on the ground: “Can I come down?” After discussing this dream with a psychotherapist, he abandoned a career that he thought his father might enjoy and went his own way.
Interesting symbols may appear in dreams. A young married man dreamed that an earthquake had leveled a temple in his hometown. He walked through the rubble and yelled, «Is anyone here?» In a session, Kevin Anderson found out that his client’s wife might be pregnant. The conversations of the spouses about How long their life will change after the birth of a child led to a creative metaphorical processing of these thoughts in a dream.
“While I was struggling with my dissertation, I could not decide in any way the important question: whether to choose a “money” place or return to my hometown with my wife and get a job there in one of the clinics. During this period I had a dream in which my professors stole a ship at gunpoint. In the next scene, my hair was shaved off and I was sent to what looked like a concentration camp. I tried desperately to escape. It seems that my «dream maker» went over the top in an attempt to give me the clearest possible message. For the past 30 years, my wife and I have lived in our hometown,” writes Kevin Anderson.
It must be remembered that all events in a dream are hypertrophied in nature.
According to him, there is no single correct way to interpret dreams. He gives several tips that help him in his work with patients:
1. Do not look for the only correct interpretation. Try playing with several options.
2. Let your dream be only the starting point for an exciting and meaningful exploration of life. Even if what is happening in a dream seems clear and obvious, it can lead you to new thoughts, sometimes very creative.
3. Treat dreams as wise stories. In this case, you can find a lot of useful and interesting things in them that are directly related to your real life. Perhaps they connect us with the «higher unconscious» — that part of us that is endowed with more wisdom than consciousness.
4. Analyze the strange thing that you see in a dream. Anderson believes that the more strange in dreams, the more useful they bring. You just need to remember that all events in a dream are hypertrophied. If we dream that we are killing someone, we should think about the anger we feel towards this person. If, as part of the plot, we have sex with someone, then perhaps we have a desire to get closer, and not necessarily physically.
5. No need to rely on universal dream symbols found in the literature. This approach, writes Anderson, implies that if two people dream of a turtle, it means the same thing to both. But what if one had a beloved turtle as a child who died and thus introduced him early to the reality of death, and the other runs a turtle soup factory? Can the turtle symbol mean the same thing for everyone?
Emotions associated with a person or symbol from a dream will help determine how to interpret it.
Thinking about the next dream, you can ask yourself: “What is this symbolism best suited for in my life? Why exactly did she appear in a dream? Anderson recommends using the free association method of brainstorming anything that comes to mind when we think of this symbol. This will help to unravel what it is connected with in real life.
6. If there were a lot of people in the dream, try to analyze it as if each of the characters is an aspect of your personality. It can be assumed that all of them did not appear by chance. Free associations will also help you understand what each of the dreaming people can symbolize in reality.
7. Pay attention to your feelings in a dream. With what feeling did you wake up after taking a cliff jump — with fear or with a sense of release? Emotions associated with a person or symbol from a dream will help determine how to interpret it.
8. Watch your dreams if you are going through a difficult or transitional period in your life and need to make the right decision. A source outside of our logical mind can point you in the right direction or provide useful information.
9. If you have trouble remembering your dreams, keep a notepad and pen by your bed. When you wake up, write down everything you remember. This will help to transfer the dream into long-term memory and work with it later.
“I have no idea what the dream about the graveyard and the severed hand means,” admits Kevin Anderson. “But perhaps some of these ideas will help you play with its meanings. Perhaps you realize that someone important, who at the right time «reached out» to you, is leaving your life. But this is only one of the options for deciphering this strange dream. Have fun sorting through the different possibilities.”
About the author: Kevin Anderson is a psychotherapist and life coach.