7 keys to interpreting dreams

#1 Keep a diary of your nocturnal life

Write down one or two dreams per week, no more. This will allow you to give them consistency and logic. Do not write everything in detail, otherwise you risk breaking the flow.

#2  Identify the narrative structure

The construction of the dream, when properly identified, offers the first blueprint that can facilitate understanding of your dreams. The dissecting is then done in three parts:
– The view, static, sets the scene;
– The narration, dynamic, exposes the causes and effects;
– The resolution concludes the action and provides a solution.

#3 Recognise symbols and how they are presented in the dream

Animals, car, jewellery… Every one of our dreams revolves around images. Drawn from both the unique history of the dreamer and also his cultural environment, these “dominant” pictures symbolise our desires, needs, and biggest concerns. To decipher these symbols, it is useful to use a dream dictionary. But beware, each symbol has many meanings, so it is therefore essential to interpret it according to its context and in relation to your feelings and experiences.

For example, contrary to popular belief, dreams of teeth falling out are not prophetic of approaching death. Instead, they are more likely related to a loss of energy and vitality. They are symptomatic of a great fatigue and weakness. If you dream of a horse, the interpretation will be completely different depending on whether you are riding it with confidence, or you fall from its back.

#4 Distinguish the key image that creates the dynamics of the dream

This is the most memorable or impactful statement that you hear or read in a dream: a phrase or group of words that is distinguished by its power, humour, its incongruity or absurd appearance.

#5 The recognition of characters

The dreamer may be the principal character, and may appear in first or third person form. He can also multiply and exist in several characters. These are reflections of different facets of our personality.

The other people in the dream can play their own role. Our unconscious then reveals their true personality, and the deep feelings that we have for them. A personality well-liked in real life may seem much less benevolent in a dream, and vice versa. In both cases, the dream indicates a misunderstanding of the other person.

Finally, there may be a play of disguises: a parental figure, the mother or father, may well be hidden behind the face of an unknown.

#6 Do not let yourself be swayed by your emotions

Emotions are generally very present in dreams. Strong emotions, such as fear, imprint a particular dynamic on the unfolding of the dream. But they should not influence your interpretation of it. It is also important to distinguish the emotions generated by an observable reality, emotional states generated by an apprehension, a perspective or a supposition.

#7 Exercise humour

The dream often invites a play on words to better reveal our troubles. The unconscious mind and its thoughts, through the dream, are expressed in a coded language to foil any censorship. It thus uses metaphors, allegories, parables, humour, puns, rhymes, similes… It is up to you to detect them! If you dream of escalator, ask yourself questions such as “Is it going the wrong way?” and so on…

Things to note:

-All dreams have a meaning. Some are just more difficult to decipher than others.

– If you have the same dream repeatedly, it is indicative of some sort of blockage. You are being held up on an obstacle that you cannot seem to solve. Dreams provide access to bottlenecks or childhood trauma that remain unconscious and yet have an impact on our lives till today.
– The dreams of children are generally more complex, very dense and more detailed, and therefore more difficult to interpret.
– The border between dreams and nightmares is thin. The nightmare is an unpleasant dream that takes sleep from us, the vision produced during a nightmare vision occurred during the nightmare being too unbearable to handle. The survival instinct then sometimes makes us spring awake. However, a nightmare is interpreted exactly like a dream.

Tristan Moir is author of “L’interprétation psychanalytique des rêves” (The psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams”), Tristan Moir, L’Archipel

 

Fabienne Broucaret

Read more from our ‘Dreams’ report: 

– The little guide to good dreams