Dream Work
Fritz Perls, a psychologist in the mid-1900s who died in 1970, based his dream theories on gestalt theory, a holistic psychology that focuses on the exact moment and seeing all sides of the situation or problem. He was a follower of Freud, though he modified Freud’s theories to reflect a more unified view of the human person.
According to Fritz Perls, dreams are often ignored aspects of our personalities or problems that we are facing, which come out in dreams because they are repressed in waking consciousness. Each dream symbol is highly personal for Perls, to the extent that only the very broadest interpretation research can even hope to be accurate, as each dream is as unique as the dreamer and the same symbol will never have the same meaning for two dreamers.
In Perls’ dream theory, there is something to be learned from all sides of the dream, and understanding of the dream can only come from taking the side of all parts of the dream in order to understand how all the pieces fit together. For instance, if you dream that you are being chased, you see the dream from your own perspective. If you then turn around and ask your pursuer why he (or she) is chasing you, you will gain another perspective.
Still another perspective can be gained from being a bystander outside of the chase, watching it from a third-person viewpoint. Another way of getting a different perspective on the dream is simply to have a dialogue with every element or character in the dream, even inanimate objects. Then do the same thing, from the perspective of the dream object. This will reveal feelings and underlying issues that you were not previously aware of. Each of these different perspectives can give you insight into the meaning of your dream, according to Frederick Perls’ dream theories.here.
One hallmark of gestalt therapy, as pioneered by Fritz Perls, is an emphasis on allowing the patient to feel, notice, and recognize her own feelings. In dream interpretation, this translates to observing every detail of the dream, narrating it in the present tense, and interacting with the dream as though re-entering it, when recalling it or describing it. This makes the dream more immediate and more real, and helps the dreamer remember more details or important parts.
In fact, narrating the dream in the present tense – re-living it, essentially – can even somewhat bring the dreamer back into the dream world, continuing the dream, discovering a back story, or moving into other scenes in the dream. All of this helps to build up the world of the dream, and of course every aspect of the dream is a projection in some way of the dreamer, so every aspect helps to give the dreamer information and insights about him or herself.