Dream Themes: A New Approach to
Individual and Group Dream Work
Robert P. Gongloff is the
author of Dream Exploration: A New Approach. He is a former
member of the IASD Board of Directors and has hosted two
international dream conferences. He lives in Black Mountain, NC,
where he conducts dream groups and workshops. His website is
www.heartofthedream.com
Abstract
The need for working with
themes.
In my research, I note that very
little literature exists on dream themes and how to work with them
in the dream work process. Most self-help books on dream
interpretation have the dreamer dwell on the symbolism in the
dream. Symbolic analysis can be misleading and time-consuming.
This workshop will fill a great void that exists in personal and
group dream work.
Through my personal and group work with dream themes, I have found
that intensive work on determining themes helps dreamers to gain a
better understanding of the waking life issues the dream is asking
the dreamer to explore. This is both true when working alone, but
also in the group sharing experiences of my dream groups: “If it
were my theme.”
What are themes?
Themes reflect the major issues
going on in one’s life. A theme is the important message, idea, or
perception that a dream or waking life event is attempting to
bring to your conscious mind.
How to determine the themes of
one’s own dreams.
I was introduced to themes
through the dream work technique developed by Savary, Berne, and
Williams in which you determine the dream title, theme, and
affect, and the question being asked by the dream) [Dreams and
Spiritual Growth, Louis M. Savary, Patricia H. Berne, Strephon
Kaplan Williams, 1984]. I found that determining the theme of the
dream was the most difficult step for the group members to tackle.
In fact, they found it easier to determine the theme after first
identifying the title, affect, and question.
To
facilitate the process, I have developed a process of determining
the theme of a dream, including some dos and don’ts to make the
job a bit easier. Following are some key questions one can ask to
aid in this process: What is the basic activity going on in the
dream? What is really happening in the dream? What are the main
characters doing in the dream? What is the major issue concerning
the characters? What is the apparent or presumed motivation of the
characters that causes them to act this way? What drives the
characters’ behavior? Is it emotion, will, or intelligence?
Theme
statements are best determined when they are personalized, stated
in the present tense, and don’t just restate the words or actions
from the dream.
