"Hero's Journey of Personality" Series: Dreams Are Your Exclusive Psychiatrist

"I was driving a small, lightweight, maneuverable car like those used on a golf course, navigating agilely on a piece of rough grass. Then a hill appeared in front of me, completely blocking my vision. Although I was worried that I would not be able to climb that hill, I felt that there was a chance that I could do it. I pushed hard, tightened the accelerator, and rushed up. I climbed the hill smoothly, but when I got off the hill, I saw what was in front of me. I immediately became nervous, because there was a large pond in front of me, like a small lake. My car didn't have time to brake. Even if I turned sharply, it seemed that I couldn't avoid falling into the water. I didn't have time to think, so I continued to do my best. Rush to the lake! At that time, I thought to myself: there should be a chance. Then my car jumped over the lake, and although it was a little thrilling, it also landed successfully.”

When he described the dream to me, it was lifelike, the somewhat tense but confidently interlaced state of mind in the dream, which was still impressive after waking up.

For many people, dreams seem to be very mysterious and difficult to understand, because they are completely inconsistent with the logic of real life, but they often use people and things that appear in real life to stage many bizarre scripts.

That's right, let's just think of dreams as one postmodern abstract drama after another. The stage on which they are staged is our own mind, and their screenwriter, director, and producer are all the same person, our own subconscious. And those actors and props are from the specific people and things we know or experience when we are conscious, and are selected by writers, directors, and producers as symbols to convey a certain information to us.

When it comes to the interpretation of dreams, the earliest and most famous is the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" written by Freud. Jung, who learned from Freud but started a new career and developed a completely different theory of psychoanalysis, had a very different view on the interpretation of dreams than Freud. Freud believed that the motivation of dreams stems from unsatisfied desires (mainly sexual desires), which is a subconsciously repressed, subtly transformed and modified presentation. Although he also believed that dreams are the manifestation of the subconscious mind, Jung believed that dreams are not only representative of the repressed past, but also have revelations about the future (or present), and it is a natural expression of our own true state of mind. , or to compensate for things that our consciousness lacks and does not notice when we are awake.

In fact, the dream does not intend to disguise or deceive us. We find dreams difficult to understand for two reasons:

1. During sleep, our rationality (controlled by the prefrontal lobe of the brain) is switched off, so logical thinking and judgment cannot play a role at this time, so the content of dreams cannot be logical. At the same time, because of the lack of logical language, dreams can only use symbolic language as a tool of expression. It is like the creation of an artistic or literary work, finding certain symbols and linking them together by means of association and magnification. It must express abstract ideas or emotions through concrete images, people, or events. So the symbolic meaning of the things or people in the dream plays an extremely important role.

2. Most of the time, what dreams express and emphasize are subconscious things, in other words, these contents are very foreign in nature to our awake (rational) self-consciousness. But as you become more and more connected with your subconscious mind and become more familiar with it, you will become more and more able to understand its language and understand what it says. Then you will find that the dream is not at all mysterious, it is very simple, because it is its own interpretation; it is also very complete, because it is an elaboration process with intention and value. According to Jungian theory, long-term dream interpretation can help us steer our self-awareness in the direction of our individuation (personal development toward completeness and maturity).

"How does it feel or think to you to run around in that little car?"

"Very flexible and manipulative, I feel very skilled and confident."

The appearance of vehicles in a dream usually represents the control of the process or direction of life activities. The driver (the person who controls the direction) may be himself or someone else. In this dream, he was quite confident in his direction in life, and felt that everything could be handled with ease. And he drives a light little car, not a huge or bulky truck. In fact, although this man has an introverted personality, he is indeed the kind of person who is very adaptable and adaptable in life. Also, because he usually likes to play golf, his dreams speak to him in terms of familiar golf course scenes and vehicles.

The hill was an obstacle, a little challenging, but he had overcome. The lake that suddenly appeared later was more difficult than the previous hills, but in the end he also flew over the lake and landed safely.

"Have you had any recent challenges in your life that worried you a little?"

He quickly thought of a technical problem he had just encountered at work, and like a dream hill, he had solved it smoothly. Next, he thought of another life problem he was currently facing. It was related to people and was relatively complicated. It had not been completely solved yet, and there were many variables.

Through this dream, his subconscious has actually told him that he is confident that he can solve this problem smoothly, although consciously (in real life) he does not know it.

As Jung said, dreams not only look back on the past, but also often look to the future. Our subconscious expectations for the future are projected through symbols.

Sometimes it acts as a warning to us, for example, when we ignore or suppress some emotions too much, then the dream is a reminder, hoping that we can pay attention to and face up to those negative existences. For example, dreaming of being chased by monsters is usually because there is a lot of stress in life. And what kind of actions or strategies the self in the dream took during the process of evading and escaping (for example, deciding to face the monster bravely, only to find out that it was not a monster, but a little mouse), which can be used for the waking self. Awareness brings some inspiration.

In addition, the death in the dream may represent transformation, transformation, or negation, depending on the way of death and who died. What is important is what the meaning of that person represents to the dreamer's mind. Usually, that person is just a subconsciously selected character to represent a corresponding or identified quality or relationship in your own heart. For example, a woman dreamed that a good friend of hers had died, and she was very sad standing in front of her coffin. After confirming the trait she identified with that friend (very empathetic), explain that at the time she felt that she was becoming more and more aloof in relationships and had no empathy, which she didn't like, Li was actually saddened by the change. In real life she is not yet aware of it clearly, but her subconscious is already alert, so it is reflected through the symbolic language of the dream.

Sometimes dreams also bring us wisdom or inspiration, which is common among many famous inventors and creators, such as Einstein's theory of relativity, Mendeleev's periodic table of chemical elements, Bohr's atomic structure model , as well as the famous novels "Frankenstein", "The Two-Face Doctor", "Jane Eyre", many of Edgar Allan Poe's novels, etc., all of whom got inspiration in dreams and then completed them in a waking state ,accomplish.

Even if we don't have great inventions or works, for most people, being able to understand a little more about their dreams can still help their mental health. Because this process not only promotes the analysis of our own state of mind, but also often leads to the ability to solve problems and create. Dreams don’t necessarily tell us what to do, but they spontaneously reflect a part of us that is already or potentially deep inside us, finding ways to reveal information to our long-held sense of self in real life. These limitations sometimes come from rationality and scientific knowledge emphasized by modern society, and sometimes from negative emotions that have been denied or suppressed by defensive psychology for a long time, or the pain of being transferred and ignored.

Dreams are a mechanism for self-regulation of the mind, and the analysis of dreams allows us to get in touch with ourselves more deeply, and to find meaningful advice for ourselves in the images we create. If we make good use of it, it can help us point out the direction and find the exit from confusion, helplessness, and contradiction, so dreams are indeed your exclusive psychiatrist.