Since ancient times, humankind has been studying and interpreting the function and meaning of an activity which takes up a substantial amount of our lives, dreaming. It is only with Freud, however, that dreaming, as an inexplicable and mysterious event, acquires great cognitive and therapeutic value. Freud was the first to explain dreams as a product of the human unconscious, a hitherto mysterious and unexplored region of the psyche. For Freud, dreams are the most important events of psychic life, “the royal road to the unconscious.”

Similarly, in Psychosynthesis, dreams are considered among the most common and frequent manifestations of the unconscious, and possibly its most direct expressions. However, Assagioli’s method for understanding dream production differs from that of Freud or Jung in some fundamental ways (Assagioli, 1973, p. 91).

1. Firstly, for Assagioli, one should never interpret dreams through a single theoretical lens, and, above all, one should avoid assuming similar dream images or contents mean the same thing for all dreamers. The logical extension of such an approach would be a sort of dream interpretation manual based on “codified” symbols, a “book of dreams”, so to speak, completely lacking in scientific rigour. In Psychosynthesis, we rather “try to forget as much as possible about all the theories and let the dream interpret itself, segment by segment, by means of associations” (Assagioli cit. in Caldironi, 2004, p. 59). In this way, gradually and naturally, a synthetic interpretative capacity can be developed, allowing us to sense the overall meaning of the dream, the situation it dramatizes, the configuration it enacts.
2. The second observation is that dreams often give only partial and unilateral access to the unconscious. In many people, only a part of the unconscious is capable, or willing, to express itself through dreams.
3. Finally, the psychosynthesist must remember that there is a great variety of dreams that have very different qualities and meanings. Therefore, the methods of interpretation should vary accordingly. There are some dreams that offer a direct, conscious message, and do not require a fractional analysis; others are incoherent, confused and require each segment to be thoroughly analysed.

TIPS FOR REMEMBERING DREAMS (Rossin, 2009, p. 91)

Dreams tend to easily fade from memory upon waking. Here are some preliminary suggestions on how we may help our memory retain dream material.

A. Before going to sleep (many of these tricks were designed for children, but adults can use them too!):

• create little rituals to serve as mnemonic anchors
• use a special pillow to create a conducive atmosphere
• use a dream catcher, the amulet used by American Indians to catch bad dreams
• talk to yourself before going to sleep and say to yourself, “tonight I want to have a dream and tomorrow I want to remember it”
• you may also write this message on a card, put in an envelope and place it under your pillow
• similarly, you can put under the pillow a card requesting a dream that will help you address a specific problem

B. Upon waking:

• take some time to remember and review your dream images in your mind’s eye and draw some quick sketches
• to stop your recollection from becoming faded or warped, write down the story of your dream immediately and jot down some notes
• tell someone about the dream as soon as you can, and, if possible, continue talking about it
• write the date and title of the dream in order to distil its essential theme and place it in its chronological context
• if you can, take your time to illustrate the dream using any art material at your disposal
• jot down observations about characters and places, emotions and thoughts; look for any association with your lived experience and with other dreams (possibly reviewing their previous description and/or illustrations)

For more:

• Know, Love, Transform yourself (Vol. I), Psychosynthesis books (pp. 175-185) – Buy now
• Know, Love, Transform yourself (Vol. II) – Buy now