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Dreams are valuable material that allows us to better understand ourselves and our lives. Our correspondent was convinced that you can learn how to analyze them to your advantage – however, for this she first turned to experts for help.
Of course, I am not Mozart or Yesenin, but the black man appeared to me too – in a dream. I dreamed that I was walking along a picture-chintz birch forest not far from my real dacha. Everything here is familiar to me: every bush, every path, every neighboring resident. And suddenly I see a stranger who is dressed in the manner of Chesterton’s father Brown – a long black frock coat, a shirt-front, a bowler hat pulled down deeply, boots and trousers are also black. He moves quickly and somehow strangely – in broken lines, as if flying by without touching the ground. I clearly understand that the stranger is heading for me. And when he “flies” close enough, I see that instead of a face he has a disk covered with white enamel. I am very scared, because even in a dream I am aware that this is not a person, but a self-propelled cyborg, a monster. I hide behind the widest tree trunk, and… a black man flies by. And I hurry to the country, believing that this is my only refuge.
The dream bothered me for a long time, it began to seem that he was warning me of something very important. But about what? That is why I took on the editorial task with interest: with the help of two experts – a Jungian analyst and a psychoanalyst – to decipher my dream.
I don’t want to be a cyborg
“Dreams should not be approached for any reason, as a fortune teller who will tell you what to do and what lies ahead,” says Jungian analyst Lev Khegay confidently. – They can really help to understand ourselves, to find the exact solution in a difficult situation, but only in those cases when they emotionally hurt us. If we cannot forget our dream, then most likely it contains an important message for us. But often we simply do not listen to our inner voice, so it is quite difficult to become an interpreter of our own dreams.
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I tell in detail my terrible dream, Lev Khegai suddenly asks: “It wasn’t the creature itself that frightened you so much, but the likelihood that, having come into contact with it, you will turn into the same monster?” Yes, perhaps, in the first place, it was precisely this that horrified me – that he would remake me in his own image and likeness. I mention that the dream coincided with the search for a new job. The choice between two offers – the PR service of a large innovative corporation and work in a newspaper – turned out to be a serious psychological burden for me. “Perhaps in your unconscious there was an association between a cyborg and modern technologies that you were offered to deal with. You do not like this business, but at that moment you were not ready to admit it. The dream suggested: it would be better for you to stay closer to nature, to something natural and familiar. Most of all, I was alarmed by his “face” – this dead disk without eyes and mouth, that is, means of communication. “After all, I am a journalist, I am used to having a dialogue, talking, listening to others and being heard,” I admit. “Then, in the dream, and later, in reality, I only vaguely felt that I needed to stay away from innovative achievements, that journalism would bring me much more satisfaction. And she made a decision without linking him and her dream in any way.
What would have happened if I had not listened to my inner voice, breaking through to me through a dream? “After a while, you might feel bored, alienated, depressed. They would become a robot, a cog, that is, what you were so afraid to turn into in a dream, ”Lev Khegay suggests.
Common Symbols
Carl Gustav Jung did not agree with the categorical assessment of the dreams of his teacher Sigmund Freud. He said that some dreams are messages from a source of wisdom deep within our souls. They help to make the right choice in life and find a solution to a creative problem, reflect the process of personal development. To understand the meaning of sleep, you should stick to its images. But this does not at all exclude the appearance in the dreams of many of us of the same symbols – archetypes that reflect the similarity of our worldview, our common cultural roots and moral attitudes. Thus, the monster archetype can indicate the fears that overcome us when we take on a new business and are not sure that we can cope with it.
* See K. Jung’s article “The Practical Use of Dream Analysis” (K. Jung “Favorites”, Potpourri, 1998) for more details.
traces of childhood
Are there other meanings hidden behind the images of my dream? In search of an answer, I go to a psychoanalyst. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you remember this dream? asks Lola Komarova. A very difficult life situation in which I found myself at that moment – I suddenly understand and answer that I had to leave not just my previous job, but a project that was very dear to me, which I could not complete. It still seems to be an unfulfilled desire. The psychoanalyst asks to name the associations that cause the details of the dream. Well, of course, my country childhood! In our company, I was younger than everyone – my brother was 3 years old, the rest of the children were 6 years old. I tried to keep up with them and still lost: in climbing trees, playing cards and telling scary stories … This constant inconsistency created a feeling of loneliness and great vulnerability. Moreover, parents, grandparents did not notice our conflicts at all, believing that the children would “sort it out on their own”.
“I felt just as unprotected in my sleep,” I suddenly realize. – I ended up in the forest one on one with the monster. And there was no one to call for help, and there was no back to hide behind. “Your experiences caused by the situation of choosing a job resonated with childhood experiences, a feeling of defenselessness and loneliness in the company of militant children and indifferent adults,” concludes Lola Komarova.
“YOUR EXPERIENCES TODAY HAVE RESONANCED WITH CHILDHOOD FEELINGS OF INSECURE, LONELINESS…”
Bulb of Memory
I leave the psychoanalyst’s office and already outside the door I remember another childhood impression. There, in the country, I constantly experienced a mixed feeling of awe, embarrassment and fear of my grandfather. Being a very busy man – an academician of several academies, vice president and deputy minister – he was far from his grandchildren. In his presence it was impossible to make noise and play, it was impossible to talk with him about your childhood experiences. And what absolutely shocked us children: in the July heat, he could sit in the garden in a draped coat and hat. Here he is – a gentleman from the forest, dressed not for the weather, in a long frock coat and bowler hat! Here it is – the impossibility of contact, fear of an incomprehensible character and insecurity from the unpredictable consequences of our meeting! Yes, I completely forgot: my grandfather came from the clergy and graduated from the seminary himself, but did not become a clergyman. But Lola Komarova asked me several times why the stranger seemed to me a priest … Obviously, in my unconscious there are childish feelings for my grandfather, which erupt in dreams when I feel anxiety. So another layer of sleep received a new interpretation. It’s not scary that I didn’t remember this in a conversation with an expert. But I am gradually mastering the art of sorting out the details of a dream, seeing deeply hidden desires and thanks to this I can better understand my dreams.
Fulfillment of desires and tricks of censorship
“The dream is never concerned with trifles, we do not allow trifles to disturb us in a dream,” wrote the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud*. He claimed that forbidden desires related to our libido are fulfilled in dreams. But internal censorship distorts the images that arise in us, so the interpretation of dreams is difficult. For example, in dreams, a displacement effect is possible, when significant events, characters and details fade into the background, become hardly noticeable. Another effect is condensation, when several characters, storylines or places merge into one. Psychoanalysis helps to unravel this tangle. During the session, the dreamer tells his dream in detail, the analyst asks him a question about each element of the dream: “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about this detail of the dream?” In this way, he does not interpret the dream, but helps the dreamer to understand it through chains of free association. A. A.
* Z. Freud “The Interpretation of Dreams” (AST, Astrel, 2011).