Logotherapy Dream Interpretation ~ Will she ever stop hurting me?

Theory of Logotherapy Dream Interpretation (a handout I share with the students after presenting LDI to them)
LOGOTHERAPY DREAM INTERPRETATION ~ Presented by Panayiota
Created using personal experience and an article called: Theory on Interpretation of Dreams
~ Logotherapy Immediate Workshop Manual – 2009
 
“Dreams - can reflect hopes and wishes form the unconscious, not only repressed aggression and lust, but calls from the conscious towards meaningful behaviour.  Advice from the unconscious to the conscious.”  
 
“Frankl has an expanded concept of the unconscious.  He asserts that it contains, also, repressed hopes, goals, and meanings to which dreams are royal roads.”
 
A Frankl quote from his concentration camp experience:  
“What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life.  We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us” (Frankl 2008:85) ~ Man’s Search for Meaning
 
“Viktor Frankl.... sees the unconscious not only in a psychological but also in a spiritual dimension as a royal road into a much wider land.  It can lead to meaning.”
 
“Dreams may make you aware of repressed drives and traumas that are too painful to face.  But dreams may also convey advice from the conscience. A dream interpretation from this perspective can help you to discover what is meaningful.” 
 
“Because the messages in dreams are often hard to understand, because of their symbolic nature, it is often easier to elicit ideas from your client using metaphors, fantasies and imagery.”
 
So, if you find that you aren’t able to help your client to interpret a dream... and maybe they don’t even have a dream to work on, then using metaphorical stories or images could be another way to elicit ideas from your client for you to both work on together. 

The Logotherapist’s task, is to help the client come to their own answers for their dream.
 
Your client could either do a collage, draw, model or write a story to illustrate where they are coming from, or the Logotherapist could show them a video that might elicit ideas.
 
Helping a client to Interpret their dreams
 

• Explain to the client about how Logotherapy dream Interpretation works whilst prompting them to find their own meaning message which has been given to them through their dream...
• Note:  LDI is NOT a fortune telling tool... it is more a revealing of personal revelation. (the answers are inside the dreamer already, they just need to work out what those answers are, and dreams are a beautiful way of doing that).
• Only the client can know the answers and meaning messages of their own dreams.
• Important factors need to be taken into consideration by the Logotherapist and brought to the client’s attention.
• What is going on in the client’s life at the time of their dream.
• The client’s history... some of which might only be revealed because of their dream.
• Everything they saw, felt, experienced in their dream.
• Their thoughts and feelings after their dream.
• The therapist needs to listen very carefully to every aspect of the clients dream experience, prompting them to share every detail, including: smells, colours, people in their dream, emotions, actions and reactions of themselves or others in the dream, but most importantly, the client’s part in their dream, and if they can remember any animals, things, atmosphere, objects, where the dream is, Immediate and distant surroundings/views in the dream, etc.
• Ask the client to try to tell you what they think their dream is trying to tell them that might be a positive, helpful, meaningful, healing message to them from their dream. 
• Help your client to see the blessing of their dream.

 
LDI can be done only on the vivid dreams that remain pretty much intact when you wake up from them. 
 
Dreams that we don’t remember when we wake, I believe, have already been absorbed into the three dimensions of consciousness (conscious, unconscious and spiritual) where the dream has been processed for our benefit.
 
“Dreams that we don’t remember may also have been buried, because we are not ready for them yet.” ~ Dr. Kanda Kalala
 
Perhaps the spiritual level of consciousness feels we are ready, but our subconscious denies the message due to fear, etc.
 
Dreams help us to become more meaning aware and orientated.  The dreams meaning messages become clearer subconsciously, gradually becoming conscious over time.
 
Once the “meaning message” of a dream has been established through “Logotherapy Dream Interpretation”, the dreamer will never need to dream that dream again as has been my experience, and that of my clients.
 
TWO RECENT NIGHTMARES
 
History leading up to my first nightmare
Around the 8th of this month, I wrote on another blog post, about how I was struggling with Mother’s Day approaching on the 12th May and remembering the pain of my own mother’s rejection and my ever-present lifelong longings for a mother’s love to reach me still.
 
1st nightmare ~ A beautiful little white foal
So, it was around then that I had a nightmare.  Myself and my two youngest children are walking on a beautiful, lush green lawn just in front of what I imagine is our house… not sure though.  In-between us and the house there are two large horses, both rolling on the soft grass and enjoying the sunshine.  We are unable to get to the front door, because the horses are in the way and we don’t know if we can trust them. 
 
There is also a most beautiful little white foal with them, and as soon as it sees us, it comes bounding over excitedly and is trying to attract my attention, nudging me with its nose, begging me to take notice of it and wanting me to play with it.
 
In my heart, I felt an absolute longing to play with it too… it was so sweet and friendly.  I wanted so much to hug it and look into its eyes and be friends with it, but I knew that I couldn’t, because I saw how its mother had stopped rolling on the grass and was looking very concerned about her foal being near us.
 
I told my children that we needed to walk faster and try to get away from the foal, before the mother comes… she could be dangerous.  So we went around the side of the house as fast as we could and as we turned the corner, I saw through the corner of my eye, the mother getting up… I felt afraid… she was coming! 
 
We walked as fast as we could… afraid to run, in case we excited the foal too much and upset the mother more.  We turned around the back of the house… the little foal right behind us all the way.  I told the children not to speak to it or touch it… I felt so sad that we had to ignore it, but we had to stay safe.
 
We could hear the mother coming, although she did not catch up with us… she was always on one side of the house behind us, so we couldn’t see her.  We turn around the other side of the house and then around to the front of the house (the other horse was also gone)… we could feel the mother horse was getting closer… I felt very afraid.  We climbed the steps and I banged on the front door a few times with my fist because it was locked (I have no idea who I imagined was going to come and save us by opening the door!).  The foal is with us and jumping around excitedly… its mother was almost around the last corner, she would see us soon.  I tell the children to stand flush against the door with me… we must stay as still as statues and not say a thing.  We must ignore the foal and even the mother, until they go away… the mother is just rounding the last side of the house back to the front yard… and then I wake up!
 
What would you say about this dream?
I’d like to encourage my readers to think about what the meaning message in my dream could have been for me.  What positive message was my dream trying to convey to me to help me deal with something in the here and now of my life.  Keep in mind that only I, the dreamer of my dream, would know for sure what the true meaning message of my dream is once I’ve worked it out… (thinking about what struggles I’d recently been facing… What was happening in my life at the time?  What answers might I need to receive to help me cope? etc.  Think about the Mother’s Day rejection-dilemma that had been haunting me at the time… would that tie in perhaps with the dream) A Logotherapist might help me to see other meaningful aspects that I might have missed and there's always more to add if assessing the psychological possibilities of the dream... for example: Why did I not even try to open the front door first?  Why did I instead choose to stay stuck against the door as still as a statue, shutting my eyes and being completely quiet (? escaping reality and fears), rather than taking some other action?  Am I even afraid of what's on the other side of the door, due to lack of trust in my future?  There could be plenty more answers, but those are not as important to me, as "What is the meaning message of my dream?"
 
My LDI interpretation of this dream
In view of the history leading up to the dream, I believe that the dream was telling me to try to find a way to turn my back on my mother’s painful Mother’s Day rejection of 2013… it’s no use hoping against hope.  It was also telling me that I am not left alone without her in my life… I still have my children (and others) standing by me and I have their love.  I have never deliberately failed them and I trust that they believe in my unconditional love for them and that I did my best to protect them when they were young even though I couldn’t save them from all our struggles whilst living with our abuser no matter how hard I tried.  I believe that the persistent little white foal in my dream that wanted nothing more than my/our love and attention, represented the innocence of my own inner child, Patty, who was so abused and rejected by her mother.  That it was not about my mother anymore, or Patty and what she suffered “then”, (mother could never reach her again to hurt her as she did before), but rather about Patty now and her pure heart, still longing for my love… meaning, that I need to continue to work hard to embrace and reassure her that she is completely loved and accepted… to give myself (my deserving inner self, Patty, and even Patricia) all that was never given to me by my own mother… to embrace myself in such a way as to be able to look at myself in the mirror and trust that I’m okay, just as I am and that I am not to allow my past to continue to frighten and shame me through the negative behaviours of others towards me, or to continue to cause me such deep sadness at times such as Mother’s Day.
 
So that, I believe, was the meaning message that I took from that dream and I am so grateful for LDI and the reassuring answers it gives to me and the sense of peace that is also given.
 
History leading up to my 2nd nightmare
Over the weekend, I was hurt and disappointed once more by people who I once again trusted (I keep forgiving them, every time they let me down, because I love them and want to trust them)… [for clarity… this is not about family, although I’d often thought about them as family]… Anyway, these people broke my trust once again, and I went away feeling so disappointed. 
 
It was late, so, because I needed to pick up my youngest son from work in two hours, I didn’t go straight home.  I stopped off to fill up my car with petrol and visit my middle son and family who live close to my youngest son’s place of work.  I had a bit of a wait in the dark because both my sons did not see their messages straight away… I had asked my youngest son if he had a lift home, because if he did, I could go straight home… and I asked my middle son if I could visit at his house while waiting.  Both boys responded at the same time and because I did not need to pick up my youngest son, I went home. 
 
Driving up the hill, I realised that I was feeling very fearful… I was traveling alone and it was dark… usually I wouldn’t feel so fearful, because I was on the trip home and should have been feeling okay about that, but I was having intrusive thoughts of a possible hijacking, or an accident.  I kept stopping the thoughts, but they were relentless.  Even when I arrived home, my pulse was racing and I felt so afraid… as if someone was waiting to ambush me as I drove into my gate, etc.  I remained anxious until I finally fell asleep after taking ¼ sleeping pill, because I already knew that I was going to struggle to sleep if I didn’t.  The next morning I woke anxious… felt fearful all day long and struggled to fall asleep once more, even though I felt desperately tired. 
 
2nd nightmare ~ dirty hands
I dreamed that I was in a room, I had just used the toilet (I’ve worked out, that if I dream about a toilet, it’s always with no doors and only one wall which the toilet is against and there are strangers present and some walking past… and the dream always comes when I’m feeling particularly exposed and vulnerable, so the opened door, no-walls toilet is a representation of these feelings) … The people weren’t taking notice of me, but there was no privacy and I felt very uncomfortable and forgot to flush.  
 
For some reason, I had a little desk near the toilet and I’m sitting at the desk drawing.  I draw a childish little stick figure of my mother and write MOM underneath it.  As I’m drawing it, in my heart, I’m longing for her to love and accept me also.  (I’ve reproduced the picture as I remember it from my dream, using my non-dominant hand, to share it with you all here on this post).
 
As I finish the picture, my mother comes up from behind me which gives me such a fright that I quickly crumpled up my picture and threw it in the toilet hoping she wouldn’t see (she wouldn’t understand if she saw it), but as I looked at her, I realised she saw me do it.  She chatted with me for a while as if she was my friend, but suddenly she dove toward the toilet, giving me a terrible fright, almost knocking me over and stuck her hand in it so fast… there was nothing I could do to stop her… I felt horrified!
 
“What did you throw in there!” she’s shouting in front of all the people passing by, and I’m (frightened and embarrassed) pleading with her, “It’s nothing important mommy”… but she is relentless and digs through the contents of the toilet looking for the paper I threw in… then, she’s just found it and she’s opening it up…  and that's when I wake up!
 
What would you say about the meaning message of this dream?
Give LDI a try before reading on.  See if you would be able to help me to interpret the meaningful message held within my dream if you were my Logotherapist.
 
My LDI interpretation of the dream
I believe that my dream was simply letting me know that what I had done for my friends (represented by the drawing of my mother), was done out of love, and that my mother's reaction, (sticking her hand in the toilet to grab what she wanted), resulted in her hands getting dirty. 
 
The dream tells me clearly, that I should not have to be taking on the blame for what happened.  I need to stop seeing the bad behaviours of others as “my shame”, or that I’m not good enough to be loved and respected or honoured by them.  That their bad behaviours do not have to reflect on me, causing me to feel exposed, shamed and dirty…
 
My mother’s abuse of me, no longer has to dictate how I should feel about myself when others treat me in much the same way as she did.
 
I did a kindness… I did nothing wrong… and in the end, that’s the SHINE that I believe my Father in Heaven will see emanating from my heart when I meet Him.  In the meantime, I will do everything in my power to keep my own hands and heart clean.
 
Thank you for sharing with me once more.
 
~ Panayiota.