Aug 15 2009
Images and Symbols
The same image can have dramatically different meaning for two different people – even identical twins. Also, most generalized definitions do not take context into account. As an example, fire can have a vastly different meaning in a fireplace than it does when a house is aflame. For these reasons, I do not encourage unbridled use of dream dictionaries. They are a good start, and if you are at a complete loss of an association, are better than nothing. But there are too many ways to uncover the meanings in a person’s dreams without having to resort to standardized dictionaries.
In addition, as a dream analyst you are just that, a DREAM analyst. You are not a psychoanalyst, and therefore are not interested in the circumstances surrounding the dream. You are helping to interpret the dream itself; and your focus should remain on that. If you take a person’s circumstances with you into the dream interpretation, you will have preconceived ideas of what the dream means. This is never a good way to start.
Images: Mental representations of objects or persons not physically present. We create them in our unconscious so that we have an inner mental picture of those things that evoke an emotional response. Our images are internalized in infancy, when we experience the world through our five senses, and attach meaning to things that satisfy our senses.
Symbols: An object that stands for something else. Not only dreams, but everyday life is rife with symbols (traffic signs, wedding rings, etc.)
Universal Symbols: Symbols that are rooted to the experiences of all humankind, and therefore are common to everyone, regardless of sex, age, nationality, etc. Listed below of some of the most common universal symbols:
House: Self
Weather: Condition of one’s life.
Water: The emotions/unconscious
Time of Day: The time of one’s life or one’s frame of mind (morning = youth = optimism)
What if none of the universal meanings seem to click for a symbol, and it has you stumped on a personal level as well? There is an easy and enlightening way to discover a dream symbol’s meaning. Have a conversation with it, in your dream journal. The symbol may hold meaning not only for that particular dream, but for your whole life as well. Allow yourself to feel the personality of the symbol. Write in an uninhibited fashion. Let the symbol communicate with you as you imagine it would. Do not let yourself form opinions about what you are saying as you are writing it.
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