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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by wittgensteinz on September 30, 2010, at 3:38:06
A question for you: Do dreams play an (important) part in your therapy? Do you talk about them? Is it helpful?
I'm a little bit busy with this topic at the moment. I am a vivid dreamer and if I take the effort could easily recall my dreams in quite some detail BUT I have never been much into doing so. Maybe I find it too intimate/private and also the discomfort of not really understanding psychoanalytic dream interpretation. My dreams are mine, and to that extent I am responsible for them, yet I do not have control over their content. These factors make me feel very vulnerable/wary when sharing them.
This is one area of my therapy for which I feel considerable resistance. My analyst has never commented on it really although seems quite engaged when I do happen to share a dream, and a couple of times the dreams have lead to some interesting work. I know from his books that he is a specialist in dream analysis. I (bravely) brought up my resistance to dream-sharing a couple of weeks back (admitting that it is not that I don't recall the dreams, but that I avoid sharing them) and he challenged me to do so - so I am beginning to keep a note of them so that I can easily recall them in session.
Maybe I am a little skeptical. I have decided to write a paper on it from different perspectives (neuroscience/psychoanalytic) and he has lent me some of his articles.
Witti
Posted by vwoolf on September 30, 2010, at 6:30:21
In reply to Dreams, posted by wittgensteinz on September 30, 2010, at 3:38:06
Dreams play a huge part in my analysis - I chose my analyst because he specialises in this kind of work, in fact. But I don't really want to talk about that here. As you say, it makes me feel vulnerable. Sorry.
Have you ever read a paper by Ogden in "This Art of Psychoanalysis" called 'On not being able to dream'? It is not easy reading - you will need to have read quite widely in the psychoanalytic field to make sense of it - but it's very interesting if you can.
Posted by emmanuel98 on September 30, 2010, at 19:20:25
In reply to Re: Dreams » wittgensteinz, posted by vwoolf on September 30, 2010, at 6:30:21
I think standard interpretations of dreams is mostly bunk. Dreams are sometimes meaningful to the dreamer, sometimes not. When I bring a dream in, it's usually a dream that is meaningful to me and usually, I can figure out the meaning. If I am unsure, my T says, what do you think that means? I know best how I felt after a dream, whether it woke me and upset me, whether it's content was obvious (like most anxiety dreams).
Posted by Dinah on October 1, 2010, at 5:31:21
In reply to Dreams, posted by wittgensteinz on September 30, 2010, at 3:38:06
I'm told everyone dreams, but I rarely remember mine. When I do they're nearly always prosaic, or with symbolism I'd have to be an idiot to miss. My brain seems rather unsubtle.
Those rare occasions I do bring a dream to my therapist, he always asks me what I think it means, which I find rather annoying. He does seem interested in it. He just says that I'm in the best place to understand they mean, and I rarely remembering him offering an interpretation.
Posted by floatingbridge on October 1, 2010, at 12:24:06
In reply to Dreams, posted by wittgensteinz on September 30, 2010, at 3:38:06
Witti, in my therapy (regular interpersonal) dreams are sometimes quite pivotal. Though we do not discuss them that often, my therapist really perks up when presented a dream.
Many of my dreams are a kind of purgatorial montage of childhood blah-blah. When we work one, I am everything in my dream. (I guess that's a standard given.) To even disengage enough to see the imagery as myself and not other is work enough that begins an unraveling process that is fruitful over time.
My pdoc/therapist is a 60/70's hybrid. Analysis, Gestalt, other approaches I recognize but can't name. It leavens the dream work, his multi-pronged approach.
Having *the dream* to discuss helps because I can, at least at the start, discuss the dream like a book. I like the authorial loophole that I am not what I write :)
Posted by lucielu2 on October 2, 2010, at 14:47:36
In reply to Dreams, posted by wittgensteinz on September 30, 2010, at 3:38:06
Witti, my T is psychodynamic but does not encourage me to talk about dreams. So much so that at times I've wondered if he flunked Dreams 101 while he was in grad school! But I think it is because I tend to present so much imagery that he feels dreams would be redundant :-) When I do report a dream, I've usually identified what it reminds me of and we start from there.
Lucie
Posted by wittgensteinz on October 4, 2010, at 11:13:26
In reply to Re: Dreams » wittgensteinz, posted by vwoolf on September 30, 2010, at 6:30:21
> Dreams play a huge part in my analysis - I chose my analyst because he specialises in this kind of work, in fact. But I don't really want to talk about that here. As you say, it makes me feel vulnerable. Sorry.
That's completely understandable. I always assume people will write what they are comfortable with. It's interesting to know that there are people out there who use dreams in their therapy - and in that some cases dreams are central to the therapy.
>
> Have you ever read a paper by Ogden in "This Art of Psychoanalysis" called 'On not being able to dream'? It is not easy reading - you will need to have read quite widely in the psychoanalytic field to make sense of it - but it's very interesting if you can.I'm afraid I haven't read widely in the psychoanalytic field. Yes, I have read a limited amount but I am still more ignorant than informed! I will keep the article in mind though.
It's rather nice keeping a note of ones dreams. Some dreams are very beautiful or powerful and some are so equisitely detailed it is hard to capture everything in writing. I shared a particularly engaging one at my last session and it lead to some interesting material, which gave me a lot to think about afterward.
I will definitely persevere with it and see how it develops.
Witti
Posted by wittgensteinz on October 4, 2010, at 11:56:30
In reply to Re: Dreams, posted by emmanuel98 on September 30, 2010, at 19:20:25
> I think standard interpretations of dreams is mostly bunk. Dreams are sometimes meaningful to the dreamer, sometimes not. When I bring a dream in, it's usually a dream that is meaningful to me and usually, I can figure out the meaning. If I am unsure, my T says, what do you think that means? I know best how I felt after a dream, whether it woke me and upset me, whether it's content was obvious (like most anxiety dreams).
I think that's the thing I've been having trouble with - the idea of dreams having a subjective meaning to the dreamer is easy to accept but that dreams might have objective symbols that stand true regardless of the dreamer is far more problematic.
Witti
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