Dreamwork vs. Dream Interpretation
There are many ways to work with dreams, most of which involve some method of dream interpretation or analysis. I have recourse to several different approaches to the dream, however I find it most effective to include a traditional Gestalt approach which I studied for several years. This approach involves the dream teller becoming each significant dream symbol or character, feeling into and reporting the dreamspace from each particular context and point of view. This method is non-interpretive, non-intellectual. It uses the richness of the imagination and helps the dreamer re-assimilate the potential strength or life force of each dream symbol, which can be seen as a split-off or disowned part of the self. It can also be a lot of fun.
In working my own dream called The Boar, which I remembered from many years before, I was able to convert the fearsome power of a rampaging wild boar into my own unclaimed expressive energy, which enabled me to become an artist, painting in oils. I later realized that my oil painter’s brush was made from boar bristles.
