Through her research, Dr. Carr has observed that there are varying methodologies employed when it comes to examining dreams and that each approach can yield vastly different insights into any given dream. However, her experience has focused on the methods of Carl Jung and Michael Conforti’s as the most effective and valuable for her work.
Dr. Carr has adopted Jung’s and Conforti’s approaches, which recognizes the objective nature of dream images. She believes that these images are intimately connected to the world of the eternal archetypes and to gain a deeper understanding of dreams, it is essential to approach them from this perspective. With her insight and experience, Dr. Carr is dedicated to helping dreamers unlock the mysteries of their dreams using the powerful tools provided by Jung’s and Conforti’s methodology.
A dream interpretation session offered by Dr. Jane Carr aims to analyze and understand the symbolic language of dreams. During a consultation, Dr. Carr works with the dreamer to explore the meaning behind their dreams and help them gain insight to the voice of their unconscious.
The process begins with an initial meeting, during which the client discusses his or her dreams and feelings about the dream. As previously stated, Dr. Carr’s approach is grounded in Jungian psychology and helps individuals better understand themselves and their life’s journey. In a dream meeting confidentiality and sensitivity to the individual are always emphasized.
This site is designed to give you a way to understand what your unconscious is trying to tell you about what your dreams mean. After hearing a person’s dream, many therapists or dream analysts ask, “What do you think your dream means?”
It’s not that this isn’t a good question. However, the dreamer’s responses seldom lead to the dream’s meaning. The answers will, however, uncover information about the dreamer’s complexes. This information can establish a point of reference about the dreamer’s external perspective on his or her life. In comparison, the approach presented here firmly holds that dream images carry their independent meaning, not the dreamer’s subjective projection of the meaning.
Please do not be put off by what in the following may sound more academic than you would like. Think of it as telling friends about a new TV show or movie they have never seen. First, you may want to tell them what kind of movie it is (the Exposition). Is it a mystery, a comedy, a love story, science fiction etc.?
Where does the movie’s opening take place (in a kitchen, Arizona, Alaska, New York?)
What season does the dream open up in?
What ages are the main actors in the dream?
The answers to these questions are helpful in beginning to understand the dream. The following academic words may not be familiar, but their meaning isn’t anything you don’t already know. They are just words that represent a way of structuring a story. In this case, it is a way of framing and organizing your dream.
Whitmont and Perera (1989) observed the fact that the dramatic configuration can be seen in most dreams “may suggest that the archetypes or deep structures of mental organization, those which help waking consciousness to remember and order dreams states, have an affinity for dramatic patterning.” In the exposition, the stage for the drama is set. The exposition “indicates the scene of the action, the people involved, and often the initial situation” (Jung, 1974, p. 80). For example, I was in my bed, or I was lecturing in a big hall. In phase two, the plot is developed: My boyfriend walked into my bedroom and got into bed with me. He began to stroke my hair gently. I feel happy. Or someone in the audience asked a trick question, and I know I cannot answer it. In the third phase, the peripeteia, a change occurs, or a crisis develops (Jung, 1974): I turn and see it is not my boyfriend. I am terrified, or I feel faint and consider leaving the stage. The lysis, the last and fourth phase, brings the dreamer to an end, where she perhaps confronts the intruder, regains her confidence, and knows she can handle the situation. According to Jung, “The last phase shows the final situation, which is at the same time the solution ‘sought’ by the dreamer” (Jung, 1974, p. 105).
The dreamer, whose boyfriend terrified her by turning into a strange man, perceives that in intimate relationships with men, she expects to be deceived and will find herself in danger. The dream also states that upon discovery, she can take appropriate action. The lysis shows that the dreamer will come to awareness and be able to extricate herself from her undesirable circumstances. Had the dreamer, upon discovering the strange man, found herself frozen and unable to move, the lysis would read quite differently. “The dream . . . is a self-evident content, a plain natural fact like . . . a fever in a patient with typhus. It is only we who, if we are clever, the signs of nature, turn it into a warning” (Jung, 1953a, p. 101).
In discussing the dramatic structure of dreams, Jung pointed out that not all dreams present a lysis. Its absence can add complications to the full understanding of any dream.
A dreamer happily presents a dream in which he is on vacation in Palm Beach, Florida. The dreamer finds himself sitting on the hot, sunny beach joyfully watching hundreds of sea turtles hatch. He has only positive associations to the dream and states that he felt wonderful watching new life coming into being.
After listening to the dreamer’s description, many dream consultants and therapists would call for the dreamer’s subjective associations and use the associations as the primary basis for understanding the dream. The dreamer, when asked for his associations, might say, “It was a wonderful dream. I could see the tiny turtles breaking out of their shells, crawling out from underneath the sand, and heading for the freedom of the ocean. It was
exhilarating to watch. It made me feel that maybe I could break free from this depression, based on the dreamer’s personal subjective
responses, a therapist, or dream interpreter might assume that the dream represented something new and positive that was about to be birthed in the dreamer’s life.
I too would ask for the dreamer’s subjective associations of the images in the dream, but then also consider the qualities that dream images actually possess in the natural world, independent of the dreamer’s associations.
I would then examine both the dream and the dreamer’s associations against the backdrop of the innate qualities carried by the dream images in the natural world. It is in the contrast between the dreamer’s subjective associations and the stable qualities carried by the images in the natural world that needs to be examined to begin to understand the dream.
In the present dream example, sea turtles are giving birth in Palm Beach, Florida, in March. Aside from subjective associations, neither I nor the dreamer may know anything about the actual details of how sea turtles are hatched. There are experts in the field, however, that would have objective information about the lifecycle of sea turtles. When researched, I discovered that in Palm Beach, sea turtles lay their eggs in the beginning of March to October, and under the best of circumstances they have a poor survival rate, only about 1 in 10,000 surviving to maturity (L. Wood, personal communication, August 13, 2002). Beyond that, sea turtles whose eggs have been laid in the sands of Florida’s beaches hatch not in the hot daylight sun, but in the cool light of the moon. For a thorough understanding of the dream, I also researched if any unusual or extraordinary conditions exist that would cause sea turtle eggs to hatch out of season and found that the reproductive cycle of sea turtles is a natural process that dates back more than 150 million years, so the circumstances for hatching would not likely change.
To consider the meaning of this dream I would begin by comparing the natural world information about hatching sea turtles in Florida with how the turtles hatch in the dream, and the dreamer’s purely subjective associations to the hatching turtles. The comparison would show the degree of nonalignment or alignment between the dream and what occurs naturally and provide deeper perspective on the dreamer’s associations.
In this dream example, the turtle eggs hatch in March, but in the real world, March is just when egg laying has begun. The eggs also hatch under the hot sun, which is contrary to hatching under cover of darkness in the natural world, which gives the turtles a better chance to make it to the sea without begin caught by predators. Taken all together, in the natural world, turtle eggs could not hatch healthy turtles shortly after being laid in March, and even if the eggs could hatch turtles early, turtles hatching in broad daylight under hot sun would have little chance of survival. Also, turtles being born out of season are almost certain to die. The dreamer’s positive associations to the hatching turtles in the dream clearly was not in alignment with turtle hatching in the natural world.
So what did the misalignment of the dreamer’s positive associations to the hatching with the natural world conditions for hatching suggest? I concluded that it would be highly likely that there could be something coming into the dreamer’s life that would be seriously misaligned with natural processes. The timing for achieving a successful endeavor in the dreamer’s life was not yet ripe, but the egg had been laid and need to be tended?
The dream can be seen and understood as a holographic picture. The whole is contained in the parts and the parts are contained in the whole. Consequently, in this process the time and space continuum collapses.
In contrast to this, the approach that I would follow is somewhat different. I too, would ask for the dreamer’s thoughts about the meaning of the dream but then (this is a big but) then contrast the dreamer’s understanding of the dream against the backdrop of what the dream image is in the outside everyday world. The images are totally independent of the dreamer’s associations. It is in the contrast between the dreamer’s subjective associations and the stable qualities carried by the image in the natural world. The degree of alignment or misalignment between the dream image and it’s meaning can then be determined. In the present example, sea turtles giving birth in Palm Beach, Florida, in the middle of March is the central dream image. Aside from subjective associations, neither I or dreamer may know anything about the actual details of how sea turtles are hatched.
There are experts in the field, however, that would have objective stable information about the lifecycle of sea turtles. In this example after researching, I learned that the reproductive cycle of sea turtles is a natural process that dates back more than 150 million years. Turtle eggs that are hatching when they should have just been laid are in serious trouble. It is then necessary to take into account the dreamer’s subjective associations to the dream as well as information about the actual nature of the dream content in the external world to be able to determine the degree of nonalignment or alignment between the dream and what occurs naturally. In this dream example, I concluded that it would be highly likely that there could be something coming into the dreamer’s life that would be seriously misaligned with natural processes, and the implications for achieving a successful endeavor in the dreamer’s life at that time would not be optimistic. Turtles being born out of season are almost certain to die. The dream can be seen and understood as a holographic picture.
The whole is contained in the parts and the parts are contained in the whole. Consequently, in this process the time and space continuum collapses.
