A New Method of Dream Analysis Congruent with Contemporary Counseling Approaches G. Scott Sparrow,...

A New Method ofDream Analysis Congruent with Contemporary Counseling Approaches

G. Scott Sparrow, EdD, LPC, LMFTAssociate Professor, University of Texas-Rio Grande ValleyFaculty, Atlantic UniversityFounder, DreamStar [email protected]

Paper by the same title published in International Journal of Dream Research, 6, 2, 2013

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AbstractRecent research indicates that dream analysis deepens and accelerates the

psychotherapeutic process, but it also reveals that dream work is not widely employed in modern practice. This may be due, in part, to the belief that the value of a dream lies in the analysis of its visual content, and that reflective awareness, volition, and personal responsibility––qualities valued highly by contemporary schools of psychotherapy––are presumed to be lacking in most dreams. While

research into dreamer subjectivity or “metacognition” has largely overturned this view, modern psychotherapists may still labor under traditional assumptions that

render the dream less useful in achieving therapeutic goals.

Abstract continuedIn contrast, co-creative dream work views normal dreaming as an interactive

process between the dreamer and the dream imagery, and views the dream outcome as a co-determined or co-created experience. By shifting the focus in

dream analysis away from an exclusive analysis of content to the dreamer’s role in an interactive process, a counselor can assist clients in discerning the dream

ego’s responses to the dream content, and evaluate how these responses influence the overall experience and, by implication, parallel waking relationships. Such an approach is congruent with the client-centered, competency-based aims of many schools of modern therapy, and thus may result in a more widespread adoption of

dream analysis by psychotherapists.

1. To introduce you to co-creative dream theory and analysis, which in my opinion is the most important development in dream analysis in 100 years.

2. To explain why this approach to dream analysis is wholly congruent with the thrust of modern psychotherapy.

3. To introduce a particular dream work methodology based on co-creative dream theory popularly referred to as the FiveStar Method. 4. To engage you in a workshop that will provide a hands-on experience of applying the FSM.

Workshop Purpose

Client dream #1• A client’s dream: I am in church, leading the congregation in song, and the new pastor calls for a hymn that I do not have the music for. I anxiously hurry to the back of the church, and rummage through some stacks of papers looking for the music, hoping to find it before it’s too late. I look to the front of the church, and see that C.––the previous song leader––has taken over my podium. Incensed, I rush back to the front of the church and confront her, saying, “This is my job now. You have to sit down.” I am surprised that she leaves the podium without saying a word, and takes a seat with the congregation. I become aware that everyone has seen me confront her, and I suddenly feel exposed.

Content• Church

• New pastor

• New song

• Old song leader

• Congregation

We would need the dreamer’s associations to discern the meaning of these images.

Dreamer Responses

• Commitment to fulfilling her duty

• Defense of her position

• Self-consciousness

We do not need the dreamer to identify these responses, but we do need her to help us

evaluate the responses.

Therapeutic Angle• Premise: From the standpoint of therapy, how the

dreamer responded––that is, her feelings, thoughts, assumptions, and actions––are more important than the analysis of content.

• Traditional content-oriented dream work methods minimize this important dimension.

Client dream #2

I am returning home, after being away for a long time. I go to join my family at a picnic beside a lake. I am hungry but everyone has already eaten and seems to be unaware of me, or not care, and there is nothing left of the food except a platter with the bones of a fish upon it. I take the platter down to the lake and lay it in the shallow water. The fish comes to life again and shimmers with color, and then swims away.

Client dream #2

• Picnic

• Unresponsive family

• Platter

• Fish bones

• Lake

• Resurrected fish

Again we would need to dreamer to provide associations to these compelling images.

Client dream #2

• Returns home and attends the picnic

• Feels ignored, unimportant

• Takes the platter and fish bones to the lake

• Witnesses the fish coming to life again

Therapeutic Angle• The clients’ responses in these two dreams

represented pivotal actions with life-changing implications.

• The clients’ responses were arguably more important therapeutically than the imputed meaning of the imagery, even though the two are obviously interrelated.

Background: Dream Sharing

• Deepens and accelerates the therapeutic process.

Diemer, Lobell, Vivino, and Hill, 1996; Falk and Hill; Provost, 1999

• Is rarely used by therapists.

Crook and Hill, 2004; Keller, Brown, Maier, Steinfurth, Hall, and Piotrowski, 1995

• Is initiated more often by clients.

Schredl, Bohusch, Kahl, Mader, and Somesan, 2000

Why?

Background: Dream Sharing

• You may think that therapists would work with dreams if they only knew how, but their resistance is probably based on more than mere ignorance.

• Their neglect of dream sharing may stem from an accurate perception that the traditional methods content-oriented dream interpretation leave the dreamer out of the picture.

• This runs counter to most modern schools of psychotherapy.

The Nature of Modern Practice

• Existential-humanistic therapy––Emphasizes personal choice and responsibility, and a focus on the present

• Cognitive therapy––Emphasizes the role of cognitive constructions as source of emotional problems/solutions

• Systemic or relational approaches––Views interpersonal processes as the source of problems/solutions.

• Postmodern therapies––Devalues the role of the expert, views the client as uniquely competent in resolving one’s problems, or re-authoring one’s life.

The Nature of Modern Practice

Given the client-centered, competency-based orientation of modern therapy, content-oriented dream interpretation may appear to appear to foster a passive relationship to the dream, rather than enhancing the client’s sense of personal freedom, choice, and responsibility.

Our Legacy• Since the time of Plato, dreams (and art) have been viewed as

their content, and as a message.

• Sontag (1966) argued that this unexamined assumption was arbitrary and constraining.

The fact is, all Western consciousness of and reflection upon art [and dreams], have remained within the confines staked out by the Greek theory of art [and dreams] as mimesis or representation ... it is still assumed that a work of art [or dreams] is its content. Or, as it's usually put today, that a work of art by definition says something" (Sontag, “Against Interpretation,”1966, p. 4).

Interpretation• Hillman referred to traditional dream analysis as “soul

killing.”

• Perls referred to interpretation as “mind f---king.”

• Boznak referred to interpretation as “colonizing” the dream (IASD, Roduc, 2012).

“Interpretation” is not what most of us intend to do. But our paradigm constrains and determines the problems we face, and invasive projections are a

constant threat in content-focused dream analysis.

The Dream is Accepted as Given

• By focusing on extracting the dream’s message, the dreamer is left on the sidelines as a passive witness to the content.

• Freud supported this age-old tendency to dismiss the dreamer by asserting that the manifest dream was strictly determined by unconscious processes (i.e. the “dream work”).

• This idea has been carried on in modern times by contemporary dream analysts, who do not ask what the dreamer did or could have done.

• Even Jung said that we don’t “have dreams,” but that dreams “have us,” thus underscoring the dreamer’s presumed lack of participation and relative powerlessness.

The Dream is Accepted as Given

A Mismatch?• So...the traditional content-focused approach can be useful, but it is

founded on premises that are incongruent with the client-centered, competency-based orientation of many contemporary schools of therapy.

• (Gestalt is the exception, but Gestalt does not analyze the original dream, but uses the images for here-and-now dialoguing.)

• Either dream work necessarily runs somewhat counter to these modern therapeutic ideals, or...

We need to adopt a different approach to dream work that can help our clients acquire a sense of greater agency and relational competency.

The Co-Creative Paradigm• Ernest Rossi introduced the co-creative paradigm in Dreams and

the Growth of Personality (1972).

• He asserted that there was "a continuum of all possible balances of control between the autonomous process and the dreamer’s self-awareness and consciously directed effort" (1972, p. 163).

• Interest in lucid dreaming contributed to its emergence, even though it tended to overlook the importance of ordinary dreams.

• My own work over the past 35 years has focused on articulating the CCP, as expressed in several publications and DreamStar Institute’s courses at www.dreamanalysistraining.com.

• While, traditional dream theory views the dream as its visual content, and as a fixed message about our lives to be interpreted...

• The co-creative paradigm views the dream as its interactive process––a dynamic, indeterminate encounter that reveals the way the dreamer is relating to particular content and co-creating one of many contingent outcomes.

The Co-Creative Dream Paradigm

• The co-creative paradigm now has the empirical support from the research of Kahan & LaBerge, Kasmova and others.

• It is now apparent that:

• dream and waking mentation are similar.

• non-lucid dreamers exhibit moment-to-moment self-reflectiveness and volition.

• Aha! Dreams can justifiably be seen as an interactive or relational process.


• The co-creative paradigm is based on a simple premise––that the dream is indeterminate from the outset and co-created through the interaction between the dreamer and the emergent content.

• It shifts the focus of dream work to include

• an analysis of the dreamer’s responses,

• their impact on the dream content, and

• the relationship that evolves over the course of the dream.


• Aims to analyze what is happening in the dream, rather than exclusively focusing on the question of what it means.

• Refrains from extracting the message or the meaning, and thus makes it easier to avoid arbitrary and invasive projections.


• Whereas content-oriented analysis is object oriented,

• the Co-creative paradigm is based on the idea that the perceiver/responder is constantly participating and influencing what is observed.

• Thus the co-creative paradigm “moves” dreamwork into the quantum model, which views the nature of reality as participatory.


• Accepts the integrative function of dreams (Hartmann, 1998), but...

• Accounts for why some dreamers achieve integration (i.e. resilience) and why some do not.

• Views most dreams as arrested in their process by a deficiency of facilitative dreamer response(s)

• Aims to help dreamers become aware of where responses are deficient, or competent.


The Precursors of the FiveStar Method

The FiveStar Method evolved to its present form over the course of almost 40 years. Influences include:

• lucid dream exploration and research

• exposure to Rossi’s seminal work

• training with Montague Ullman

• collaboration with Mark Thurston and Henry Reed at the Association for Research and Enlightenment.

• psychotherapy practice (since 1982)

Step 1: Retelling the dream in the present tense and sharing feelings that arise.

Step 2: Formulating the theme or process narrative.

Step 3: Analyzing and troubleshooting dreamer responses (which may involve projective dream work) and analyzing reciprocal changes in imagery.

Step 4: Standard imagery analysis such as amplification (which may involve projective dream work), Gestalt, and any other non-invasive methods.

Step 5: New response formulation––to dreams and parallel waking scenarios––which may include Dream Reliving

Steps of The FiveStar Method

Caveats• Co-creative dream work can be done in a variety of structured and

semi-structured ways.

• The FiveStar Method happens to be the approach that I have developed in my own practice.

• I encourage you to configure this approach to suit your own style and needs.

• In my own practice, I may use the method flexibly and emphasize one or two of the steps while leaving out the others.

• The most important thing is to understand how the co-creative paradigm necessitates a focus on the dreamer’s responses and their impact on the imagery and outcome.

Step1: Sharing the dream in the present tense and relating

feelingsFrom the Handout:

Dreamer shares the dream in the first-person, present tense. The dreamer shares feelings aroused by the dream. The dream worker may interrupt the dreamer wherever necessary and access the dreamer’s feelings and subjective experiences. The dream worker identifies with the dreamer’s experience, and shares feelings that may arise.


feelings• recaptures the affective intensity of the original dream, and makes it a here-and-now experience.

• creates a shared emotional space.

• conveys to the dreamer that there may be feelings that are, as yet, submerged.

• interrupting the dreamer to access feelings and subjective experience insures that the dreamer does not simply tell “the facts.”

Step 2: The Theme or Process NarrativeFrom the Handout:

In collaboration with the dreamer, the dream worker distills the action in the form of a succinct summary. Avoid mention of specific images and names. Use generic nouns like “someone,” “something,” or “somewhere” to replace specifics names, objects and places. Example: “Someone is trying to get somewhere, and encounters an array of obstacles blocking his way,” or “Someone is trying to get someone’s attention, and finally is able to get noticed.”

• The process narrative illuminates the basic action of the dream without any mention of content.

• It differs from other dream theme methods by being purely descriptive, rather than searching for universal themes. (Thurston, 1978; Sparrow, 1978)

• Family therapists will recognize this type of assessment as related to describing the process or structure of a family system--assessing the how rather than the what.

Step 2: The Theme or Process Narrative

• Formulating the process narrative assists the dreamer in looking beyond content specificity and content parallels, and instead focusing on process parallels between the dream and waking scenarios.

• The process narrative is based entirely on what is evident in the manifest dream––and, if done properly, there is no interpretation, nor any threat of invasive projections, thus remaining true to a postmodern, constructionistic approach.

Step 2: The Theme or Process Narrative

Step 3: Dreamer Response Analysis and Imagery Change

AnalysisThis is the most important step in the FSM, unique to co-creative theory.

From the handout:

In collaboration with the dreamer, the dream worker highlights and troubleshoots the dreamer’s responses to the dream content by simply focusing on where the dreamer responded or reacted to the dream situations and characters. The dream worker uses “process questions” and “process descriptions” to highlight the circular relationship between the dreamer’s responses and the imagery changes. An example might be: “When you (felt/thought/assumed/responded), the image changed, and then you ...” Follow up with questions such as these: “Is this a new response, or is it familiar?” or “What was constructive about your response?” or “What was unfortunate about your response?” Then ask, “What could you have done differently? How do you think the dream image would have responded to that?”


AnalysisFrom the Handout:

The dream worker/dream group may participate vicariously by saying, “If this were my dream, I can imagine myself feeling/thinking/assuming/acting...” This projective dream work is optional based on the dream worker’s style and philosophy, and protective measures in a group setting (such as prohibiting eye contact, and speaking to the group instead of the dreamer) may be implemented to make sure the dreamer’s autonomy is preserved.


Analysis• Establishes the circular causal, or reciprocal relationship

between

• the dreamer’s responses feelings, thoughts, assumptions and behaviors, and

• the imagery’s appearance, change, and possible development.


Analysis

“Reciprocity is the governing principle of relationship”

(Nichols, 2010, Family Therapy: Process and Methods)

Dreamer Response Changes

Dream Imagery Changes

reciprocity orcircular causality

Using Process Questions and Descriptions• Process questions and process descriptions (Bowen, 1978) are

ideal forms of inquiry that we can use to analyze dreamer responses and imagery changes.

• They are used by systems-oriented therapists to teach their clients:

• the circular nature of relationship problems.

• to stop blaming.

• to take responsibility for one’s actions and feelings.

• to become “the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Using Process Questions and Descriptions

• “When you (felt/thought/assumed/acted)... then (the image) reacted/changed ... and then you ...”

• “How do you think (the image) would have responded if you’d ... instead of what you did?”

• “When (the image) did that, how do you think it affected your (feelings/thoughts/assumption/actions)?”

• What do you wish you would have done differently? And what do you imagine the effect would have been?

Projective Dream Work Option• Step 3 allows for “projective dream work” in Dreamer Response

Analysis if you choose to allow it. Examples are:

• “When I listen to your dream, I can imagine myself responding (similarly or differently)...”

• “When you responded as you did, I was surprised, because I thought you were going to...”

• “I was (impressed, sad, worried, excited, etc) when you did...”

This is an excellent way to involve the group in a free-ranging, but fairly safe exchange, because the focus is on demonstrated responses, and relational style, not

interpretation.

Step 4: Standard Imagery Analysis

From the Handout:

This step involves using traditional non-invasive methods of imagery analysis, including the following:

Amplification: The dreamer shares his or her associations with the images (amplification). The dream worker/dream group can also provide associations and ideas, as well (i.e. projective dream work), but this is optional based on the dream worker’s style and philosophy, and protective measures may be implemented to make sure the dreamer’s autonomy is preserved.

Dialoguing: As an added step, the dream worker/dream group may have the dreamer dialogue (role play) with dream images in order to enhance awareness and deepen the relations

Step 5: Formulate a Plan of Action for Future Dreams and Parallel

Waking Scenarios From the Handout:

At this stage, the dream worker asks the dreamer, “What would you like to do differently if this dream should arise again?” You may engage the dreamer in reliving the dream in fantasy to explore the impact of new responses. Also ask the dreamer, “Where else in your life can this new response be helpful? Where are you willing to enact this new response?” Any efforts to apply the dream in the dream state and/or waking life situations can be analyzed subsequently and new efforts formulated on the basis of the progress made or difficulties encountered..


Waking Scenarios Step Five may also include Dream Reliving, a technique of asking the dreamer to”

•imagine himself/herself responding to the past dream as if he or she was lucid,

•focuse on changing one’s responses to the dream, not changing the dream itself.

Dream Reliving differs from Imagery Rehearsal Technique by placing the emphasis on changing one’s responses, rather

than changing the dream itself.

So Let’s Do It!--Dream #1I am traveling in a car w/ two of my closest friends. I am driving, not sure where we are or where we are going, but I feel like I am on a mission and feel a great sense of urgency. My friends are happy and talking and laughing and don’t seem to feel the way I do. I feel that I have to be somewhere and there is no time to spare. We come to a small town along the highway and are sidetracked. There is some sort of carnival going on, and before I know it the car is driving itself toward the carnival.

So Let’s Do It!--Dream #1 That is, I am still driving, but feel the steering wheel pull to the side, and take us through a field and towards the woods where there is a parking lot. We get out and my friends want to stay and see the carnival and a play that is about to start. I am not happy about this and express it to them and anyone else around. I say that we need to go, and very soon!

So Let’s Do It!--Dream #1

Then I am standing beside the highway near this place and waiting for my friends to come. I say, “Let's go!” I then say, "I am leaving now and anyone that wants to come with me better get in the car, now!” As I am saying this and standing along side the road, I see several tractor-trailers coming towards me at a high rate of speed. I watch them with caution, but I don't move or run. I stand my ground and watch them barreling towards me and at the last minute they shoot off the road to my right and go on their way.

So Let’s Do It!--Dream #1

Then we are at someone’s house, not sure who, and stopping for a visit. Again everyone else is laughing and talking and at ease, in no hurry. I am still anxious about needing to continue the journey, and state that I want and need to get going right away! I am stern in expressing this, but no one gets upset with me. Then it switches to just me and I am meeting the man I love and we are boarding a huge ship together, like a cruise ship, and we are very happy and excited. Then I wake up.


feelingsFrom the Handout:

Dreamer shares the dream in the first-person, present tense. The dreamer shares feelings aroused by the dream. The dream worker identifies with the dreamer’s experience, and shares feelings that may arise.

Step 2: The Process NarrativeFrom the Handout:

In collaboration with the dreamer, the dream worker distills the action in the form of a succinct summary. Avoid mention of specific images and names. Use generic nouns like “someone,” “something,” or “somewhere” to replace specifics names, objects and places. Example: “Someone is trying to get somewhere, and encounters an array of obstacles blocking his way,” or “Someone is trying to get someone’s attention, and finally ables to get notice.”


AnalysisIn collaboration with the dreamer, the dream worker highlights and troubleshoots the dreamer’s responses to the dream content by simply focusing on where the dreamer responded or reacted to the dream situations and characters. The dream worker uses “process questions” and “process descriptions” to highlight the circular relationship between the dreamer’s responses and the imagery changes. An example might be: “When you (felt/thought/assumed/responded), the image changed, and then you ...” Follow up with questions such as these: “Is this a new response, or is it familiar?” or “What was constructive about your response?” or “What was unfortunate about your response?” Then ask, “What could you have done differently? How do you think the dream image would have responded to that?”


AnalysisFrom the Handout:

The dream worker/dream group may participate vicariously by saying, “If this were my dream, I can imagine myself feeling/thinking/assuming/acting...” This projective dream work is optional based on the dream worker’s style and philosophy, and protective measures in a group setting (such as prohibiting eye contact, and speaking to the group instead of the dreamer) may be implemented to make sure the dreamer’s autonomy is preserved.

Step 4: Standard Imagery Analysis

This step involves using traditional non-invasive methods of imagery analysis, including the following:

Amplification: The dreamer shares his or her associations with the images (amplification). The dream worker/dream group can also provide associations and ideas, as well (i.e. projective dream work), but this is optional based on the dream worker’s style and philosophy, and protective measures may be implemented to make sure the dreamer’s autonomy is preserved.

Dialoguing: As an added step, the dream worker/dream group may have the dreamer dialogue (role play) with dream images in order to enhance awareness and deepen the relations


Waking Scenarios At this stage, the dream worker asks the dreamer, “What would you like to do differently if this dream should arise again?” You may engage the dreamer in Dream Reliving to explore the impact of new responses. Also ask the dreamer, “Where else in your life can this new response be helpful? Where are you willing to enact this new response?” Any efforts to apply the dream in the dream state and/or waking life situations can be analyzed subsequently and new efforts formulated on the basis of the progress made or difficulties encountered.

So Let’s Do It Again!

• I want one of you to volunteer to share a dream.

• If we have time, we will do another dream, and then we will have a question-and-answer wrap-up period.

Summary of the FiveStar Method

• establishes a complete context for dream work comprised of both content and interactive processes.

• involves less risk of invasive projections by focusing on the manifest dream elements, but allows for projective dreamwork in relation to:

• dreamer responses (nontraditional)

• imagery associations (traditional)

Summary of the FiveStar Method

• easily maps onto the relationship dimensions of a person’s waking life.

• is congruent with client-centered, competency-based counseling approaches.

www.dreamanalysistraining.com

www.dreamanalysistraining.com/moodle2

www.dreamanalysistraining.com

•I offer a course titled, Mastering the FiveStar Method.”

•I also offer a Certification Course and Practicum for those seeking certification.

•Texas LPC Board CEs are included.

•You can take either course for free if you are not interested in receiving CEs or Certification.

References

•Kahan, T.L. (2001). Consciousness in dreaming: A metacognitive approach. In K. Bulkeley (Ed.), Dreams: A reader on the religious, cultural, and psychological dimensions of dreaming (pp. 333-360). New York: Palgrave.

•Kahan, T. L., LaBerge, S. (1996). Cognition and metacognition in dreaming and waking: Comparison of first and third-person ratings. Dreaming, 6, 235-239.

•Kahan, T. L., and LaBerge, S. P. (2010).Dreaming and waking: Similarities and differences revisited. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(3):494-514.

•Kozmova, M. & Wolman, R. N. (2006). Self-awareness in dreaming. Dreaming, 16 (3), 196-214.

•Rossi. E. L. (1972). Dreams and the growth of personality. New York: Pergamon.

•Sontag, S. (1966). Against interpretation and other essays. New York: Picador.

•Sparrow, G. S. & Thurston, M. A. (2010). The five star method: A relational dream work methodology. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. 5, 2.

References

•Sparrow, G. S. (2013). A new method of dream analysis congruent with contemporary counseling approaches. International Journal of Dream Research, 6, 1.

•Sparrow, G. S., Thurston, M. A., Carlson, R.. (2013). Dream reliving and meditation as a way to enhance reflectiveness and constructive engagement in dreams. International Journal of Dream Research, 6, 2.

•Sparrow, G. S. (2014). Analyzing chronic dream ego responses in co-creative dream analysis. International Journal of Dream Research, in press.

•Sparrow, G. S. (2014). To control or not to control: The nature of dream imagery from the standpoint of lucidity. Refereed chapter for publication in Lucid Dreaming Anthology, Hurd, R. and Bulkeley, K. (eds.). New York: Praeger. Accepted, 10/13.

A New Method ofDream Analysis Congruent with Contemporary Counseling Approaches

G. Scott Sparrow, EdD, LPC, LMFTAssociate Professor, University of Texas-Rio Grande ValleyFaculty, Atlantic UniversityFounder, DreamStar [email protected]

Paper by the same title published in International Journal of Dream Research, 6, 2, 2013

Thank you!

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