The End of Abstract Art

The Dream: I dreamt that abstract art was over.

Interpretation: If art in a dream stands for the way the dreamer expresses herself, then the dream is telling me that it will no longer work for me to do so in an intellectual, abstract way. That's over. In other words, it's time for me to deal with life and experience and feelings more directly.

A Different Kind of War

The Dream: There are two opposing armies: on one side, the Americans; on the other, the Koreans. I’m on the American side. We’re behind a high stone wall. We shoot over the wall, and then duck to keep from getting shot. The other side doesn’t have a wall, yet we never hit any of them. I think we should call in a helicopter to shell them from above since we are getting nowhere with our current method. The general tells me we won’t do that because we actually don’t want to hurt anybody.

Interpretation: I see this dream as an almost humorous image of my internal battle. On the one side is my current concept of myself (a “me” rican); on the other side, an important part of myself (a “core” ean) that I haven’t yet accepted.  The dream ego (me) has insulated itself behind a stone wall and fights it out with this unacceptable part of myself. I get impatient and want to destroy it from above, indicating it’s my intellect at war with my instinctive, more primitive nature. The general, who represents my greater, more integrated awareness—what Jung calls the Self—counsels patience. The dream tells me that there is a better way than destroying a part of myself to resolve my internal conflict.

Butterflies

The Dream: The manzinita bush in the back garden is covered with butterfly cocoons and emerging butterflies. I look at them analytically to figure out what kind of butterflies they are. I’m a little worried about the fact that they are so plentiful.

Interpretation: Traditionally butterflies have been a symbol of transformation: the soul emerging from the body as the butterfly emerges from the cocoon. I try to understand this wonder with my intellect (analytically). When I can’t, I become uncomfortable. The unconscious is pointing out that I cannot understand everything using reason and logic. 

The Transformative Power of the Child

After the very long analysis of the last very short dream, my unconscious offered up this delightful confirmation of the importance of the inner child.

The Dream: I’m at a doctor’s office. She sits in an enclosed cubicle and asks questions as I lie in a bed nearby. I have two problems with her questions: 1) I can’t hear them, and 2) I can’t understand them. She uses a lot of big words; strung together they create incomprehensible sentences. I become frustrated and angry and—feeling inadequate—I blurt out: “I’m a Phi Beta Kappa; I’m not stupid! And I can’t understand what you’re saying!”

I am with my daughter, who is a baby but as intelligent as an adult. She tries to tell me what the doctor is saying. I embrace my child, enjoying our closeness, but partially showing off for the doctor. “See? I have a good relationship with my child!”

The doctor comes out of her cubicle in a fairy princess outfit. She is taking part in a show the staff is putting on. One of the staff comes over and removes her doctor’s name tag.

Interpretation: There are things my intellect cannot understand and cannot cure. Progress for my psyche comes through feeling (the embrace) and intuition (the child). When I embrace my child, something magical happens.

Kept Under Wraps

No matter how old we get, there may be issues from the past we haven’t resolved. This dream brings one front and center. According to Jung, a man in a woman’s dream represents what he calls her Animus—the part of the woman that expresses what were thought of, in his time, as male traits: ambition, assertiveness and intellect.

The Dream: A young person, a teenager or someone in his early 20s, is being zipped into a clear form-fitting plastic bag, something like a heavy garment storage bag. The dream image shows his shoulders, a bit of his torso and his shaved head. He has a tattoo on his left side. It is clear the young man has transgressed and this zippering is his punishment. I think this treatment is harsh.

Interpretation: The part of me that is ambitious, that would go out and make its way in the world, is represented by the figure in this dream. This part has been confined by being zipped into a plastic bag. The event occurred at a formative stage of my life: teenage or early 20s. The tattoo represents some remaining rebelliousness. My forceful part has been overlaid by a phony “plastic” persona and stored (placed in a heavy garment storage bag.)