(This is a 3-part lesson.)

PART 1

Students will learn about people who have regarded their dreams as expressions of their own creative voice.

Students will write out (Language Arts) or depict artistically (Fine Arts) a vivid portrayal of a recent or memorable dream.

Students will analyze their own dreams in terms of fundamental literary or artistic concepts.

PART 2

Students will learn how to use ASSOCIATIONS as tools for symbolic thinking.

Students will apply the skill, generating associations to their own dream material, and other literary/artistic material.

PART 3

Students will learn how to use ABSTRACTION as a tool for symbolic thinking.

Students will apply the skill, practicing translating things to higher levels of abstraction, using both their own dream material, and other literary/artistic material.

Paper and writing utensils for all participants

Access to artistic materials (for Fine Arts option)

(optional) examples of relevant artists’/authors’ works

(optional) prepared word list for Free Association game

Explain that some people have described dreams as "Inner Literature" or "Inner Artworks": powerful expressions of our own creativity which (unfortunately) are only available to be viewed by an audience of one person, the person who created them. Tell them about creative people who decided to share their dream and nightmare visions with the world, and in so doing, created masterworks of art and literature. 

Ask the group: "How are your own dreams like great works of literature/art? What do the two have in common?" Brainstorm a list of similarities, emphasizing important literary or artistic concepts (literary: theme, plot, setting, character, foreshadowing, metaphor, simile, etc. OR artistic: color scheme, perspective, style, mood, tempo, emotion, shading, pace, balance, etc.) Have everyone copy down the same list of brainstormed concepts.

Challenge the students to think about their own dreams and select one that is especially vivid and/or memorable. It would help for it to have a strong, compelling story (for the literary lesson option) or striking visual/emotional elements (for the artistic option). Ask the participants to take some time to develop the dream into an actual story, poem, or artwork. (This might be a homework assignment.)

Present the creative works to the entire class. Have everyone participate in analyzing some of them in terms of the brainstormed list of literary/artistic ideas discussed earlier. Then have each participant individually do the same kind of analysis on his/her own creative product.

Explain that learning to analyze symbols is a very valuable skill, which can be applied to literature, films, and visual arts. It is the same skill that is used when people try to analyze dreams. Playing at dream analysis is an excellent way to develop the skills necessary for sophisticated understanding of symbolic content in art and literature.

Use an image from one of the students’ dreamworks as an example for guided practice. Write the word or post image in front of the class. Tell the class that you will practice two different methods of developing their symbolic thinking skills: associations and abstractions.

Tell the class that historically, dream analysis really began with studies of ASSOCIATIONS, led by Freud and Jung . Basically, associations are any things that come to mind when you contemplate a particular image or concept. The original idea was to reveal the supposedly repressed contents of the "unconscious" mind, by studying the automatic responses that it supplied when prompted.

[Optional] As a quick example, you may want to play a Freudian "Free Association" game. Quickly present single words to individual students and have them respond as fast as possible, with the first thing that comes to their mind.

Ask the class to consider the to the target image you have selected, and to take a few moments to individually generate lists of their mental associations to it. Encourage them to list as many things as possible. The associations may be very obvious (such as love è hate) or much more personal (such as love è Aunt Tilly) or completely unexpected (love è greed). Anything that pops into mind, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense, is an appropriate response. When everyone is done, allow some time for the group to share some of these associations with each other, and to discuss the experience.

Then ask the group to turn their attention to some of the images in their own dream-based creations, generating lists of associations to several key images or elements embodied in their finished works. Discuss any insights that may have arisen during this process.

Next, move on to working with ABSTRACTION. Explain that authors and artists often use concrete objects to symbolize abstract concepts. For example, a clock that appears in a novel or painting may represent the passage of time and may also imply that our time on earth is limited. (You may want to show one of Dali's "melting clocks" pictures to illustrate this idea.)

Many students initially have trouble identifying underlying abstract concepts in art and literature. But there is a simple trick, borrowed from dream analysis, that may be helpful. Dream psychologist Gayle Delaney encourages fledgling dream interpreters to try to describe each dream element of the dream as if to a Martian, who knows nothing of life on Earth. Make sure to answer the question, "What is this item’s essential purpose?" So a telephone might be described as "a means of communicating between people who are physically separate or distant". Without really trying, students who use this method usually end up thinking at higher levels of abstraction. Have the students practice this technique on the images and concepts embodied in their own dream-based creative product.

[Optional] If time allows, you may want to focus more attention on LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION, discussing the concept in detail. A handy example is the concept, "CHAIR." Write the word right in the middle of the blackboard. Tell the class to think of related concepts. Off to one side, write examples of things that are more SPECIFIC (office chair, recliner, beanbag chair, etc.) On the other side, write examples of things that are more GENERAL (things you can sit on, furniture, solid objects, etc.) Associations tend to be on the SPECIFIC side of the target concept. The "Martian" technique (which elicits abstractions) usually works the other way, triggering responses on the GENERAL side.