Info about some aspects of my former professionnel activity
| The
Psychologist assures absolute discretion and
confidentiality.
The client should be straightforward and inform about himself and his life and not be evasive or conceal essential information. Memories and recurring dreams are also very important |
I |
Interpretation and exploration of dreams
Sigmund Freud
In his book "Traumdeutung" (1900) he is treating the importance of dreams to the psyche.He meant dreams were the "royal way to the subconscious" and was using them in psychoanalysis to bring hidden conflicts to the surface and to force out suppressed areas.
Nowadays it is generally believed, Freud had overrated the meaning of sexual wishes in originating dreams.But it is still accepted that fulfillment of wishes play a big role in dreams, and that daily events are digested and assimilated.
Dreams are being explored more often. New interesting facts were reported in the magazine "Focus", dtd 18 Aug 97. For instance the processing of subliminal observations (below the consciousness level) in dreams. It was found that certain activities like reading, writing and calculating were rarely appearing in dreams. A possible explanation would be, that dreams are dealing with primary processes (Es) mostly, while the three above mentioned activities are more connected with secondary processes (Ich).
Sex is a possible subject of dreams, but it is not dominating. Erotic contents are found in 12% of Male and in 4% of female dreams only.
Childrens dreams
Here I would like to insert an exemple for children dreams. It is the frighening dream of a ten year old girl. Stationed in a hospital, she is dreaming, that she is being incarcerated, has nothing to eat or drink and no toys. She has also drawn a picture to demonstrate this
dream: 
In fact, this girl had been missing a lot, not so much in material things, but warmth and safety. Hidden in this dream, like a coded message, is the wish for safety, even if at first the fear of being locked in comes to mind. The material things are not as important. The girl in the picture is very small, so it may indicate the dream points into early childhood. The cage reminds you of a latticed cot, used for children in hospitals, to keep them from falling out. There are grown-ups who were horrified by those "cages", but children feel more or less safe and protected there. If only danger and perils are threatening on the outside, vou certainly are more safe behind bars, even if it means the restriction of freedom.
If you are interested in child-therapy and the interpretation of pictures, here you can see an example: It is the picture of an eight-year-old boy, a stutterer, who had been treated in a speech school. You can see him triumphantly sitting on his father, urinating on him. The poor father is quite filled up already. To the left you can see the mother, looking on.
Seen psychoanalytically it probably is a succeeded presentation of an oedipal conflict situation, and the attempt to resolve it by reversal of the authority: The son masters the father and is admired for it by the mother. At the same time it becomes clear that children unconsciously deal with conflict situations while painting, similar to playing; and this can lead to answers that can be used
therapeutically.
