Tony Crisp Interpretation: An approach suggested by Carl Jung. In essence it is to honour what the dream states. In the dream quoted above under amnesia, David is sleeping on a mattress, but it could have been a bed or a hammock, or even a sleeping bag. So why a mattress and why in the garden, and why not alone? Having noted the specifics of our dream, we then amplify what we know about them. We ask ourself such questions as ‘What does sleeping on a mattress on the floor mean? Have I ever done it? When? Why? Where? In what circumstances? Does it represent some condition?’ In other words we bring out as much information as we can about each dream specific; this includes memories, associated ideas, anything relevant. In the case of David, he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in his present relationship. But he had slipped back into attitudes which damaged this old relationship. P.W. Martin emphasises it is amplification not free association which is sought. Free association may lead to an interesting ‘interpretation’ which may not be connected to the dream specifics.
See dream processing; postures, movement and body language; word analysis of dreams; settings.
An approach suggested by Carl Jung. In essence, it is to honor what the dream states. In the dream example above in the entry amnesia, David is sleeping on a mattress, but it could have been a bed or a hammock, or even a sleeping bag. So why a mattress and why in the garden, and why not alone? Having noted the specifics of your dream, you then amplify what you know about them. You ask yourself such questions as “What connections do I have with a mattress? What does sleeping on a mattress on the floor mean? Have I ever done it? When? Why? Where? In what circumstances? Does it represent some condition?” Thus you clarify as much information as you can about each dream specific. This includes memories, associated ideas, recent events, anything relevant. See gestalt dream work.
Freud was not, of course, the first to recognize the connection between dream imagery and associated ideas. Artemidorus in the first century A.D. had already written about this. But even prior to this, Aristotle (384-322) had written on how the mind uses association. He had listed ways this happened—through similarity, difference, and contiguity. Prior to the publication of Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams, David Hartley had written his work on psychology, titled Observations on Man (1749), and James Mill had written Analysis of the Mind (1829), both of which examined association and set the foundations for modern psychology in the Associationist movement. See .