An Exercise in Dream Work

There are a number of different ways for working with dreams and although my approach is informed primarily by the Jungian school, this post will offer a brief introduction to how the Gestalt model might work with a dream. Gestalt approaches are known for their creativity and this in evident in their dream analysis. Fritz Perls, German-born Psychiatrist and Analyst and founder of Gestalt Therapy theorised that the dream was a projection of ourselves, meaning that everything that featured in the dream was representative of a different part of us. If we are to be taken as a whole, a fundamental tenant of Gestalt theory, then so too must our dreams be.

An example helps bring the richness of this approach to life so, using one of the most famous dreams in psychotherapy, let us look at the Wolf Man's dream. Sergei Pankejeff (1886-1979) was a patient of Sigmund Freud and shared with him a nightmare from his childhood in which he saw a tree outside his bedroom window with six or seven wolfs in it, staring at him. Freud, of course, had his own analysis which you can read more about here. However, as Pankejeff was an artist, he also gifted us with a visual representation of the dream (titled The Wolf Man's Dream) which is shared here from the Freud Museum website.

As with all modalities, exploring how the dreamer felt in the dream is a great place to start, but what happens when you then tell the dream from the perspective of someone or even something else in the dream? If you tell the dream from start to finish from the perspective of one of the other characters (including the inanimate) and using the first person, how does it sound?

For example, here, what can the tree see and feel? What is it like for the tree to see the little boy? And what is it like to be supporting so many wolves? Are they heavy? Does the tree feel used or are they perhaps company? One might say, “I am the tree and although I might look big and strong, my leaves are all gone and I am tired, I want to rest.”

And what of the wolves? You might even take each wolf individually. What is it like being the wolf on the highest branch versus the lowest branch? For example, “I am trying to get a better look of my surroundings so I climbed up into this tree but now I don’t know how to get down!”

The examples shared are for illustrative purposes only, there is no right or wrong, but an opportunity for playfulness which again, is very much a part of the Gestalt approach. So, if you’ve been reading this with a dream in mind, why not take a moment to play with it and see what you find.