Gunnar Sundström, BA, is a
psychologist and licensed psychotherapist of psychoanalytical
orientation. He is Chair of the Board of the Swedish Dream Group
Forum.
Abstract
A workshop will be presented in
which ca 10 persons can join and work with a dream in the way
outlined by Montague Ullman. The Montague Ullman method of working
with dreams in a group setting can be described as a four-step
process in a group of people gathered to share dreams with
themselves and the others.
The work goes as follows:
I One person, the dreamer,
shares a dream with the group. The group listens to the dream as
it is told and memorizes it.
II The group pretends it is
their dream, and, firstly, identifies and connects to the emotions
aroused in ’their’ dream; secondly, the group members also search
for metaphorical meanings of different parts, images, actions,
etc, in the dream.
III A The dream is given back to
the dreamer who is free to give as much or as little response as
he/she wants to.
III B1 If the dreamer wishes so,
the group starts a dialogue with the dreamer around the dream,
with the purpose of further connecting the dream with the
dreamer’s life situation. The group asks the dreamer about recent
whereabouts, thoughts and feelings experienced in the evening
before the night when the dream was dreamt, and/or the days
before.
III B2 The dream can be read to the
dreamer, who has the opportunity to make further connections in
the light of what has been discovered during the process so far.
III B3 If the dreamer so wants, the
group members can share their conclusions about the meaning of the
dream, or parts of it in a so-called ’orchestrating projection’.
IV In a group which meets on a
regular basis, a session starts with looking back on the previous
session, and the dreamer whose dream was worked with during that
session can share thoughts with the group that might have arisen
since the last meeting.
Since this is a
’one-time-meeting’, the group will be given time for evaluation of
the work and experiences around it. Key concepts in the process
will be presented and discussed:
- Non-intrusiveness –
protection of the dreamer’s safety
- Safety-factor and
curiosity-factor
- The dreamer should be
in control of the process
- Projections in the
process of experiencing and/or interpreting a dream
