Dream Symbols

Symbols (dream images or unconscious contents) have been recognised from antiquity to the present day and they guide us more than we might imagine.

They are images with meaning embedded within them… waiting to be discovered. Whether that meaning is truly inherent or attached or both, isn’t really that important in this little synopsis (nor do I have time to go into it!). What is important, as I have come to learn as a psychotherapist, is that we pay attention to them and if need be develop a relationship with them.

This is because the unconscious is often compensatory therefore if we use scales as an analogy - on the one side the unconscious and the other the conscious – and take the symbols from the unconscious side, we lift the load and create more balance in our psyche. If we don’t pay them enough attention, the symbols may return to the scales (possibly within the form of a recurring dream) especially if it’s a very important message for us. Symbols returning could also mean that you are steadily working something through.

Crocodiles frightfully plagued my dreams for many months and only once I’d fully realised their message, could I literally move on in my life.

I’d always end up in their jaws, sometimes I found myself running across several crocodile heads to get to the shore, only to find myself stuck fast. Again.

The conscious situation I was suppressing was that I wasn’t in the right relationship. I felt like

I couldn’t escape because I didn’t want to hurt my partner or go through the pain of loss myself. Once I did end the relationship, my inner relationship with crocodiles also ended. Now instead of being afraid of falling asleep and seeing them again, I thank them for what they represented for me.

When interpreting something like this dream series, it’s helpful to be quite logical when paying attention to the symbols.

Being inside of a crocodile’s jaws is almost impossible to survive. A crocodile has the most powerful jaws in nature so one feels terribly stuck. What is the powerful situation I feel I can’t escape from? What is it that has a vice like grip on me? What are the feelings in the dream and how do they link with waking life?

Jung counselled that everything in a dream is a part of self, so in this vein, ultimately it was only parts of me creating this impasse.

Freud would no doubt see the dream’s manifest content (actual content one sees in a dream) as censoring the latent content (hidden meaning of the dream) – the latter being I felt unable to activate and move out of my neurotic state and do the right thing.

Sometimes interpretation is pretty straightforward, just a little directed thinking produces fruitful results… sometimes, as in the crocodile dream example, it’s a hard pill to swallow, as one doesn’t want to face the consequences.

As in psychotherapy, so in dream interpretation – question, enquire, be curious and be patient.

Always keep in mind though, dreams can surprise us and not conform at all to the frameworks our conscious mind applies to them.