Dream interpretation, the study of nightmares, and therapy

Dream interpretation

Why do people dream? We get hurt by our one-sided views. Jung showed that dreams show us what we are missing, the opposite side. Dreams beome nightmares when it is urgent that we see the opposite side.

Jungian dream interpretation releases blocks. It can help you with your work, your relationships, and your creativity.

Jungian analysis, Dream interpretation, study of nightmares

I’ve been a Jungian analyst in New York for the past 23 years and I’m specially trained to work with dreams. I work with individuals and couples and run two on-going therapy groups. I was president of the C.G. Jung Foundation for six years, until 2007.

Dream interpretation is hard to do by yourself. Your thoughts about a dream express your conscious viewpoint but the purpose of a dream is to compensate, that is, contradict your conscious viewpoint. So, when you think you understand it, you may be mistaken.

Dream interpretation is not by the book. The structure of dreams has logic but dream symbols are creative: they use paradox, humor, and imagination. Dream interpretation is like interpreting a poem.

Fairy tales and dreams both compensate one-sided viewpoints and they both use the same symbolic language. We can learn that symbolic language by interpreting fairy tales.

Jungian analysis: sleeping.gypsy.600x385.jpg

Sleeping Gypsy, Henri Rousseau, 1897. Photo copyright: The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

You will find in the menu of this page free audio-recordings of a series of fairy tales and my interpretation of them; also a lively article by myself on dreams and therapy (Dreams and Biology); also a synopsis of my technique of dream interpretation; also descriptions of the many classes I teach in New York on the interpretation of dreams and fairy tales.

 

Click here to contact me by email