ABSTRACT

Dreams offer an invaluable means of understanding the dreamer's arc of personal development. As a clinician, when the author interprets dreams he is interested in identifying the person's current stage of development and any areas of stress, delays, or pathologies of adjustment. Dreams typically "rewind" to a pivotal moment that hasn't been resolved and that needs further attention. The psyche keeps track of those things and creates dreams that identify pressing current tasks. Dreams also "fast-forward", giving psychotherapists surprising glimpses of the future that's possible, and they provide a strong impetus to achieve the next stage of development. Some dreams reveal how people present suffering stems from ancestral issues and intergenerational transmission of trauma. One of the basic dream methodologies is to identify horizontal-developmental stressors and vertical-transgenerational stressors, paying close attention to the significant emotional charge many people experience around their membership and position within the family system, the matrix of biological and social existence.