How Systems
Theory and Post Modern Ideas Transform the Way We Perceive and
Analyze Dreams
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 1970s, dream
analysis tended to be equated with the interpretation of the
dream’s visual content. This bias was due, in part, to the
continuing influence of psychoanalysis. The dreamer was, according
to psychoanalytic theory, in a state of suppressed awareness in
relation to the dream content – which was by definition
threatening to the conscious self. Effective dream analysis
depended on the presence of an expert who could assist the dreamer
in becoming conscious of the latent content, or true intent of the
dream. While Jung disputed Freud’s view of the nature of
unconscious impulses, he continued to emphasize the analysis of
imagery, whether it was seen as universal or personal in nature.
Lucid
dream research challenged this historical content orientation,
showing that the dreamer was capable of self-reflection and
self-directed effort during the dream, and was able to interact
freely with the intrusive novelty of the dream imagery. From a
different tradition, Rossi’s qualitative study into the
development of dreamer awareness confirmed that the dream could be
seen, not as a fixed experience with fixed content that could be
analyzed as such, but as a dynamic, evidencing synchronous changes
between the dreamer and dream imagery, and leading to the
synthesis of a new identity.
The
shift from the analysis of imagery to the analysis of an unfolding
relationship calls for a new mode inquiry capable of articulating
the relationship dynamics evident in the dream encounter, and
providing a sense of direction for the dreamer that is no longer
based merely on the analysis of static symbols.
Schwartz’s Internal Systems
Family Therapy has already established a precedent for applying
systems concepts to intrapsychic experiences. Similarly, this
author draws on concepts from systems-oriented family therapy, as
well as from the post-modern therapies, and shows how dream
workers can effectively analyze dreams without disabling the
dreamer by pronouncements about the dream’s meaning apart from his
or her involvement. The author also outlines a structured approach
to a competency-based, process-oriented dreamwork methodology in
which the dreamer’s responses during the dream, and the
synchronous effects on the dream imagery provide a larger context
for understanding the dreamer’s role in the dream’s unfoldment,
the meaning of the imagery to the dreamer, and a clear sense of
direction when applying the dream work to waking life.
Partial list of references:
Rossi, E., 1972. Dreams and the
growth of personality (and its subsequent editions). New York:
Pergamon Press.
Sparrow. G., 1976. Lucid
dreaming: dawning of the clear light. Virginia Beach: A.R.E.
Press.
Sparrow. G., 1983. An exploration
into the induction of lucidity and greater reflectiveness in
nocturnal dream reports. Dissertation at the College of William
and Mary.
Bateson, G., Jackson, D., and
Haley, J., 1976. Problem-solving therapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Mandanes, C., 1981. Strategic
family therapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bowen. M., 1976. Theory in the
practice of psychotherapy. In Family therapy: Theory and Practice,
P.J. Guerin, ed. New York: Gardner Press.
Minuchin, S., 1974. Families and
family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schwarz, R., 1995. Internal
systems family therapy. New York: Guilford Press.
Berg, I. K. and
de Schazer, S. 1993. Making numbers talk: Language in
therapy. In The new language of change.
White, M., and Epston, D., 1992.
Experience, contradiction, narrative, and imagination: Selected
papers of David Epston and Michael White, 1989-1991.
