Dreams

Clinical experience indicates that dreams offer a window into the unconscious. The dream story is what the patient remembers and reports, the dream associations help link the dream story to related unconscious elements. Dreams occupy a special place in the history of psychodynamic theory. Each dream is unique, but thinking about several common unconscious elements helps to reflect on dreams which include transference themes, self-perceptions, and unconscious fantasies. Generally, the first intervention therapist make about dreams is to teach patients how to work with them. When patients like these report dreams but then seem disinclined to talk about them, therapist often choose not to confront the resistance, but rather to respect their avoidance by supportively by passing the dream. Therapist listen both to the dream story as the patient tells it, and to the dream associations to learn about related unconscious elements.