ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the dream series of a patient of mine, Alison, to show what dreams can really do for us. Alison suffered from anorexia nervosa, and she had an extraordinary dream life. Her dream series was very striking because, in order for her to achieve a new start in life, her psyche had to reach all the way back to the plant stage of evolution. Dreams present with an amazing, conflicting profusion of trivialities and occasional profundities that should evoke in an attitude of maximum respect, maximum suspicion, and maximum aggression. Dreams can inspire us with love, while nightmares can make us scared to go to sleep again, and most of the time they speak in riddles. Dreaming is about learning to love, just as life is about learning to love, and evolution is about learning to love—all in a fumbling and haphazard way.
