ABSTRACT
The natural setting for dream appreciation is the family. After all, the sore spots and unresolved feelings pictured so extravagantly in people's dreams are most frequently linked to the family. The support of the family can be very valuable to a dreamer struggling to get closer to a dream. And yet sustained dream work within the family unit is relatively rare. Those who have tried it give evidence that new possibilities for expressing distress and desire, for confirming the rights of every person within the family, begin to emerge through such shared dream appreciation. Tensions which are normally not acknowledged, but which disturb people's daily life, are nudged into the light of recognition and thereby help them to challenge old ways of viewing themselves. Families have a certain continuity based on the roles they allow each member to assume. Dream metaphors help people to objectify their unacceptable emotions so that they can be talked about and even laughed about.
