Sunday, December 4, 2011

Something’s Got a Hold of Me



The Dream: I’m in bed with my husband Clark, but having sex with someone else who is small in stature and not particularly attractive, but very seductive. I later find out he has had concurrent affairs with many others, each of whom thought she was the only one. I find a message he has sent to one of his paramours. He has drawn a lush lake shore in an expressionistic style. In some way this art conveys his undying love for some other woman.

I am incensed and go to fight with this guy who, I had believed, loved only me. I find him in a cafeteria with Clark. The fellow grabs hold of me and won’t let go. No one helps me; I struggle on.

Interpretation: The figure in the dream appears to be a trickster: he is small, seductive, and unattractive. There’s some small unattractive part of me that I find seductive. In the dream I try out this part, merging with it (having sex). The part of me that deals with life and the world in a practical way (Clark, playing the part of my animus) refuses to get involved in the problem. First he sleeps as the trickster and I become one, and then he doesn’t lift a finger to free me when I’ve had enough of the experiment. I’ve seen the trickster for what he is: duplicitous and deceptive, yet in some way connected to art and regeneration (the lush lake shore). The dream tells me I’ll struggle on until I recognize and integrate this unappealing part of myself.

2 comments:

  1. Thank goodness you know how to interpret this dream or it might have been more disturbing, at least if I had dreamt it. What does it do for you to interpret a dream? Do you feel more calm afterward, more serene, unified? Or does it raise more issues?

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  2. After working with dreams for a long time, and reading extensively on the topic, bizarre dream images rarely disturb me. I look at the players in my dream as symbols that are reporting back on the state of my psyche. I've come to realize that I'm made up of parts that are not always in harmony and not always "nice." My job as the "ego" is to let these parts have their say. By recording the dreams and thinking about them I can feel the energy in these frustrated parts release--so I do feel more serene and unified after working with a dream. And, best of all, the work of a dream doesn't require that we fully understand it.

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