The Five-Star Method: A
Process-Oriented Competency Based Approach to Dream Analysis
Scott Sparrow, EdD, LPC, LMFT,
is an Asst. Professor at the University of Texas-Pan American. In
1976, he wrote Lucid Dreaming: Dawning of the Clear Light.
Since the mid-80s, Scott has developed the Five-Star Method – an
approach to dream analysis based on the dreamer's capacity for
self-reflecting awareness and choice, systems theory, and
post-modern therapeutic approaches.
Abstract
Prior to the advent of modern
lucid dream research, the dream was typically seen as an emanation
or message from the unconscious – and the dreamer, by implication,
a passive recipient. Whether the imagery was regarded as
intentionally obscure as the Freudians contended, or the message
itself as the Jungians believed, dream analysis traditionally
focused on the meaning of the dream imagery without regard for the
dreamer’s feelings, assumptions and responses during the dream.
While the role of the expert in dream analysis has been undermined
by Jung’s view of the personal unconscious, the rise of the
existential/humanistic school of therapy, and the emergence of
social constructivism and the postmodern therapies, the emphasis
on analyzing the visual imagery of the dream still dominates most
dream interpretive approaches.
The
phenomenon of lucid dreaming challenges the assumption that
dreaming is necessarily a state of reduced awareness and volition,
and thus represents an anomaly that can serve to revise and
restructure our approach to dream analysis in general. However, by
focusing on lucidity as a discrete state of awareness, most lucid
dream researchers have overlooked the level of awareness and
interactivity that is evident in ordinary dreams. Operating
somewhat outside the lucid dream research community, Rossi
observed that nonlucid dreamers exhibit self-reflection,
interactive capability, and the capacity to synthesize a new sense
of self through a dialogue with the dream content. Building on
Rossi’s work, Sparrow went on to establish that lucid dream
induction efforts give rise to measurable increases in self
awareness and dreamer responsiveness even when the effort to
become lucid “fails”.
If,
as Rossi contends, there is a continuum of all possible balances
between the autonomous image-generating dimension of the dream and
the dreamer’s self-directed efforts, then all dreams can be
analyzed as a statement about the relationship between the dreamer
and the dream content. From this standpoint, dream analysis
becomes an analysis of circular, or reciprocal dynamics – similar
to systems oriented family therapy – and within this framework the
dream can be treated as one of many possible cocreated outcomes,
some of which may be more desirable than others to the dreamer.
The
Five Star Method has evolved over a 25-year period in which the
author has engaged in personal and experimental lucid dream
research, collaborated with other dream psychologists, and
conducted extensive outpatient psychotherapy. The result is a
process-oriented, competency-based approach that engages the
dreamer in an exploration of how the dreamer’s responses give rise
to particular cocreated outcomes, and may mirror typical waking
life responses, as well. The imagery is analyzed, as well – but
only once the affective and interactive context of the dream has
been explored. The dialogue that arises between the dream worker
and the dreamer supports a creative consideration of alternative
responses to the dream and to life, thus supporting a therapeutic
and developmental process.
The
workshop will include a PowerPoint presentation on the theoretical
underpinnings of the Five Star Method, a small-group experience in
which participants will learn to apply the method, and a follow-up
seminar for questions and answers.
