The Existentialist-Phenomenological Approach to Working With Dreams With an Emphasis on Bosss Ideas - Essay Example

 I. Introduction The existentialist-phenomenological approach to dreams in psychotherapy departs from the classical psychoanalytical approach that interprets dreams as an expression of the subconscious mind. Medard Boss was the first to give expression to the existentialist-phenomenological approach to dreams in psychotherapy and he argued that dreams were “not something we have” but rather, dreams “are an aspect of our being –we are our dreaming state” (Caperton, 2012, p. 20). In other words, Boss and subsequent existential-phenomenological analysts interpreted dreams as manifestations of the “dreamer’s current concerns” (Caperton, 2012, p. 20). I will argue in this paper that this approach to working with dreams corresponds with the theoretical underpinnings of the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship since existential phenomenology stresses subjectivity in that the experiences of an individual informs how that individual relates to and interprets the world (Spinelli, 2007). However, I am not convinced that the existential-phenomenological approach to working with dreams always contributes to an understanding of the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship. If the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship is constructed around allowing the patient to find his or her own solutions, self-exploration can be compromised in working with dreams. Dreams quite often confuse dreamers and can require input and explanations from experts in psychology. This paper analyses the existentialist-phenomenological approach to working with dreams with an emphasis on Boss’s ideas and analyses how those ideas and the existentialist-phenomenological approach to working with dreams contributes and fails to contribute to an understanding of the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship. This paper will briefly describe the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship and will present an analysis of the existential-phenomenological approach to working with dreams with an emphasis on the ideas of Boss and how they compare to existentialist phenomenological analysts especially, Emmy van Deurzen and classical psychoanalytical approaches. II. The Existential-Phenomenological Therapeutic Relationship Both theoretically and therapeutically, existential-phenomenological approaches stress conceptual meaning as a means of achieving psychological transformation (Corrie & Milton, 2000). In this regard, existential-phenomenological therapists are inclined to reject the imposition of meaning on patients and in this regard, the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship is “egalitarian” in nature (Owen, 1994, p. 348). Existentialist phenomenological therapists invite their patients to test their own personal values and meanings against various other personal experiences.(Edwards, 1990). Existential-phenomenological therapists take the position that it is important to “deal with the world as their clients experience it” and in order to do this, the therapist “must be willing to suspend” his or her “own personal understandings” (Edwards, 1990, p. 108). It is not the therapist’s job to provide clients with an objective worldview, but rather, it is up to the therapist to facilitate the client’s examination of the way that they are constructing reality by reference to their own experiences. It is therefore the therapist’s job to ensure that the client accesses all of their experiences to enable them to integrate it “without selection or denial” (Edwards, 1990, p. 109). Existential-phenomenological therapy takes a two-step process. In the first step, the client articulates personal meanings and in the second step, the client tests those meanings by reference to other angles of their experiences. This first stage is known as “attentive-being-with” and the second step is known as “invitational-being-with” (Edwards, 1990, p. 109). Accordingly, the second step involves emphasising: ...new ways of attending to experience, learned within the therapeutic encounter, a process which facilitates the emergence of personal meanings not hitherto articulated. These are then reframed through the encounter with the therapist (Edwards, 1990, p. 109). The existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship is built around a “being with lived experience of the client and the self” (Nanda, 2010, p. 333). The client is also encouraged to remain “open to and accepting what shows itself to us” (Nanda, 2010, p. 333). Experiences are all used as opposed to discarding an experience as unconnected or irrelevant. Thus all experiences are important and are therefore recognized in what is known as “horizontalism” (Nanda, 2010, p. 334). The existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship requires describing what is noticed as opposed to explaining and conceptualizing experiences (Nanda, 2010, p. 334). III. The Existentialist-phenomenological Approach to Working with Dreams A. The Ideas of Boss The existential-phenomenological approach to counselling, known as “Da-seinalysis”, is a technique in which the patient is permitted to “assume and to perform all their pregiven possibilities of behavior in a reflective and responsible way” (Boss,2001, p. xi). Boss (1982) used the term Da-seinalysis to describe his own brand of existential psychotherapy in which he emphasized Heideggerian ideas of embodiment and openness. Embodiment explains how the individual’s physical and mental being is embedded or inseparable and the inner and outer worlds are likewise embedded. Therefore Boss gives expression to the existential rejection of the idea of separate parts of the self. In this regard, Boss (1978) emphasizes how his Daseinsanalytic phenomenological approach to working with dreams differs from Freudian and Jungian approaches. For example, Freud saw dreams as means of preserving sleep and “providing a means for working through unresolved anxiety” via “representations of wishes that would otherwise be unacceptable to the dreamer” (Langdridge, 2013, p. 75). In other words, dreams for Freud were comprised of some concealed meaning and needed further analysis to reveal the true meaning behind the dream. Quite often, dreams can be confusing and comprised of images that are entirely alien to the dreamer and it the only way to make sense of these dreams is to view the images as symbolic of something the dreamer is familiar with. Taking Boss’s approach to dreams can leave the dream meaningless when the dreamer does not recognizes dream images and therefore cannot connect it to the waking world. This would defeat the existentialist phenomenological contention that all parts of the self and existence are interconnected. It would also defeat the existentialist phenomenological tendency to let the client explore and question his or her own existence as the client with confusing dreams might raise questions that he or she cannot answer and will be compelled to eventually dismiss the dream as entirely meaningless. This is exactly what existential-phenomenological approaches to working with dreams seek to prevent. Nevertheless, Boss suggested that dreams can be used in psychotherapy by focusing on two fundamental questions: ..to what phenomena is a person’s existence open while dreaming?...Now that the dreamer is awake, how is it that he or she is able to recognize meaningful features appearing in the dream which correspond to meaningful features in his or her waking life? (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 141). The first question takes accounts of all objects, episodes, individuals, behaviour, moods and animals in the dream. This would also include contexts including the dreamer. It would also take into account all the dreamer’s sensory perceptions and responses to the “phenomena which appear in the dream” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 141). Thus Boss brings to the existential phenomenological approach to working with dreams the open nature of the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship and its emphasis on exploring all aspects of the human condition and human nature. The difficulty with this particular approach is that the dreamer may not be able to recall sensory perceptions and responses while in the dream state. Many times the dreamer only observes as an outsider and quite often, the dreamer only recalls vague images and cannot have any meaningful responses to the dream in the waking world. It is difficult therefore to see how this aspect of the existential phenomenological approach to working with dreams can contribute to the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship when the dialogue requires contextualizing the dream where the client has vague recall of images and no recall of sensory perceptions or responses while in the dream state. The first question is however particularly demonstrative of the existential phenomenological suggestion that the human body and the human mind are all important parts of the human experience. As Craig and Walsh (1993) explain: A full answer to this question also reveals certain phenomena and ways of existing to which the dreamer was not open while dreaming, for this too, is an indication of just how things stood for the dreamer during the time of the dream (p. 141). The difficulty with this however, is that the dreamer may not be able to fully answer the first question and as such, the dream may end up being discarded by the client as uneventful and meaningless. The second question is also a reflection of the humanistic existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship which is client-centric. It also suffers from the same difficulties that the first question presents. The second question demonstrates a focus on the dreamer’s own responses via the phenomena revealed by the first question and this includes the responses that the dreamer had in the dream (Craig & Walsh, 1993). Therefore, even the dreamed and waking sensory perceptions are important and this ties in with the existential-phenomenological assumption that the mind and body works in tandem in experiencing being and responding to lived experiences. However, many dreams are far removed from the dreamer’s lived experiences and experiences of being or existing. According to Craig and Walsh (1993), the questions suggested by Boss are particularly central to the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship because it allows the therapist to not only extract the meaning of the client’s dream, but it also has an “implication for waking life” (p. 142). It allows the therapist to “make sense and to make use of the dream in the therapeutic situation” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 142). The questions posed by Boss, provides “ready access to primary, secondary, and tertiary allusions of the dream” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 142). Since the client provides the primary source of the dream and its meaning, the success of the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship depends on how well the client remembers the dream, feelings and can relate the dream to the waking world. Boss (1978) insists upon focusing on the content of the dream and the dreamer’s response to the sensual, physical and actual contents of the dream. The idea is to inspect the content of the dream for it reveals (Boss, 1978). However, I am not altogether sure that dreams can always reveal anything of value unless they symbolize or represent something else. In my dream for example, I did have feelings and thoughts, but the content of my dream and my sensory reactions revealed nothing to me about my existence. Although my own dream engaged sensory perceptions, it does not bring together my dreamed responses and my waking responses as I am distracted by trying to connect the contents of my dream to anything meaningful in my waking life. In my dream, I was on campus, after a lecture. I see myself going out in the open space which is enclosed in the campus. It is almost dark and while I walk I fall over something and come to the realisation that it was a body or perhaps it was bodies. I hear a scream, and instinctively I am aware that the scream is not mine. It was one of a girl (how someone felt that murder had taken place). I see blood. I lift the girl from the ground ( I think she killed her boyfriend). She is skinny, emaciated , her eyes are scared. We sat by some stairs at the edge of the campus’s ground and I embraced her and I am trying to make her talk. My only waking response was a feeling of relief that it was only a dream and I had not actually experienced the aftermath of a murder. After that feeling passed, I instinctively dismissed the dream as meaningless as aside from the campus, I could not remotely connect it to my waking existence. Boss’s (1978) insistence that the actual content of the dream be examined limits my ability to examine the dream. The contents of my dream revealed nothing to me. However, I believe that if I were to look behind the contents of my dream for hidden meaning, I might be able to explore it more fully and might find a connection to my waking existence. Regardless, Boss (1978) appeared to believe that dreams have intrinsic value for helping us understand our existence. In demonstrating the value of dreams, Boss (1978) recognized the lack of constraints on the dreamer’s ability to explore experiences and thoughts. As Boss (1978) noted: Again and again it happens that a dreamer purposefully decides to intervene in the dream events (and) then carries out his decision to the letter. Even people who don’t quite know what is happening to them in their waking lives, allowing themselves to be driven by their momentary moods, often show an astounding strength of will while dreaming (p. 184). It is certainly true that I may have shown an astounding strength of will in my dream by speaking with a girl I believed could have just committed a murder. In my waking world, I would not have taken such a bold and dangerous approach. Instead I would have fled the crime scene and telephoned the authorities. However, I may have behaved so boldly in my dream precisely because I knew that it was only a dream and knew that no harm would come to me. According to Boss (1978), since dreams and the waking life are intricately connected, dreams are very important for helping the dreamer to confront and resolve issues that hinder their reality. It is here that I am at a loss in making the connection between my dream and my waking life and the issues that hinder my reality. Dreams are said to be persistent in that they will continue to revisit the dreamer until such time as the issues undermining the dreamer’s reality is resolved (Duesbury, 2011). Since I have not had a similarly disturbing dream since that dream, I can only conclude that I either resolved whatever issue my dream revealed or that my dream did not reveal an issue. Boss suggest that rather than focusing on a construction or transformation of dreamed images and attaching external meanings, we should extract the images as they appear “ontically and ontologically” (Caperton, 2012, p. 22) . The ontical image refers to images in the dream as they are “immediately understood” and the “everyday meaning of a particular being or image” (Caperton, 2012, p. 22). The ontologic aspect relates to the reflections on and the “forma structure of beings,” as well as the “things which define a set of beings as beings” (Caperton, 2012, p. 22). For example a client may be asked to identify an image in a dream such as a cat, but will be asked to explain their perceptions of the cat in which Caperton (2012) explains as identifying the cat and the “catness” (p. 23). As Caperton (2012) observes: These layers reveal themselves only through the client’s elucidation of the specificity of the phenomenon, in which it is imperative that the analyst seeks to bracket their presuppositions about given images. What is important is not the therapists understanding of symbols and their translations, but the clients coming into a fuller awareness of the depth inhering to a dream image and its connection to their present existential concerns (p. 23). What is revealed here is the client-centric nature of existential phenomenological therapeutic relationships. In the approach to working with dreams, the objectives of existential phenomenological approaches to therapy are present in encouraging the client to be free, open, autonomous and responsible for his own construction of his or her reality and existence. As Craig and Walsh (1993) explain, the existential-phenomenological approach to working with dreams engages the underlying objectives of existentialist phenomenology in that it engages the dreamer’s own experiences and the dreamer’s own conclusions relative to meaning and understanding of their dreams and how it is linked to their waking experiences as opposed to relying on the analyst’s explanation. According to Boss, when looking at a dream it is important to bear in mind that things are what they are and not “something else” (cited in Shafton, 1995, p. 141). In quoting Goethe, Boss observes that one should not “look for anything behind phenomena” because “they themselves are the lesson” (cited in Shafton, 1995, p. 141). Taking the lead from Boss, existential-phenomenological therapists take the position that the dream itself is a part of the real world. The only distinction between the dreamed experience and the waking experience is the individual’s “sense of being there of being-in-the-world” which is the central theme of existential phenomenological therapeutic relationships Shafton, 1995, p. 141). B. Van Deurzen’s Approach to Working with Dreams Van Duerzen (2005) explains that the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship is based on an approach which allows the client to “ask the right questions, rather than providing them with the answers” (p. 3). Existential-phenomenological therapy is based on an examination of the human existence as opposed to the more conventional examination of human personalities. Thus existential therapists emphasize a patient’s look at “human issues” and “the clarification of what it means to be alive” (Van Duerzen, 2005, p. 3). In this regard: Existential work is about understanding and clarifying what is problematic for an individual and enabling clients to tackle their problems in a creative and courageous manner (Van Duerzen, 2005, p. 3). Therefore the existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationship is characterized as taking an “existential-humanistic approach” which emphasizes the client’s personal growth (Van Duerzen, 2005, p. 19). Clients are encouraged to “connect” with their experiences (Van Duerzen, 2005, p. 21). In order to determine the meaning and purpose of one’s life, the client must explore death, isolation, freedom and meaninglessness (Van Duerzen, 2005, p. 21). Van Duerzen (2005A) like Boss (1978) sees dreams as a valuable source of information for the client in clarifying their views of the world. By discussing dreams, the client is able to identify that which is important to her or him and what disturbs the client more than anything else (Van Duerzen, 2005A). In reviewing my dream over and over again, I am still at a loss for what it reveals to me about what is more important to me and what disturbs me at all. I may have better clarification if I were to discuss my dream with an existential phenomenological therapist. However. Since existential phenomenological therapist leave the discovery of meaning to the client, by enabling the client to ask the right questions, I am not sure I will be able to ever abstract clarification from my dream. The questions Van Duerzen (2005) hopes clients will ask themselves are related to questions of existence, the meaning of one’s existence, the purpose of one’s life and so on. There is nothing in my dream that makes these types of questions relevant. Regardless, Van Duerzen (2005A) states that dreams not only “can” but “do” bring clients to the realization that “their present concerns and characteristic mode of being” are found in “dream images” (p. 145). According to Van Deurzen (2005A), dreams are akin to a “microcosm inhabited by the same intentions and worries as the client’s actual world” (p. 145). Boss (1978) however was not a definitive about this connection in that he saw dreams as connected to the waking existence, not a replication of it as Van Deurzen (2005A) appears to suggest. Van Duerzen (2005A) does however, take an approach to working with dreams that contributes to an understanding of the existential phenomenological therapeutic relationship. In working with dreams, the therapist is cautioned against interpreting or suggesting to the client what the dream images mean. Even when the therapist is able to identify the significance of a dream for a client, the therapist can use techniques designed to “encourage the client to consider such possible interpretations” but by no means should the therapist apply “any pressure” (Van Deurzen, 2005A, p. 146). For Van Deurzen (2005A), like Boss (1978), the client is the most important source of information relative to the meaning of the dream. Van Deurzen (2005A) does appear to depart from Boss’s (1978) insistence on allowing the dream itself to reveal its meaning to the client and to refrain from imputing hidden meaning via symbolism. Van Duerzen (2005A) used an example of a client’s dream in which the client eventually came to the realization that her conduct in a dream and the terrorising experience of being chased by a pack of wolves symbolized or was a “metaphor” for a real life concern and experience (p. 148). If I were to use metaphors and symbols in exploring my dream as Van Deurzen (2005A) did with her client, I am sure I will be able to impute something of significance into my dream. C. The Existential-Phenomenological Approach to Working with Dreams: Common Themes It is believed that “an existential-phenomenological investigation of dreams can throw light on the individual’s existence” and provide a more “complete picture of how the dreamer experiences his being in-the-world” (Moja-Strasser, 1997, p. 107). The existential-phenomenological approach to therapy encourages an investigation of the whole of our experiences. No experience is discarded and is believed to be a part of a whole picture of the individual’s existence or being. However, when a client struggles to make sense of a dream, the temptation to discard the dream may be too strong to resist with the result, that some dreams may not survive a serious exploration and will not add to the client’s existence and experiences as a whole. As Craig & Walsh (1993) inform, existential-phenomenological therapy is built around the concept that human existence is explored via death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. The importance of death is that it is a certainty and is juxtaposed against the human desire for immortality. Freedom relates to the fact that while we enjoy freedom, we are responsible for our lives, identities and experiences. Isolation relates to the individuality of human beings although we have a desire to be united with others and protected. Meaninglessness acknowledges that we live in a world where there are no definite truths and we are therefore responsible for creating and discovering meaning and “purpose around which to structure goals and realize values” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 143). An individual’s experiences in the context of freedom, isolation, meaninglessness and death can be filled with pain and inconsistent emotions and thoughts which can be manifested in conduct and traits that are “maladaptive” in nature because the individual cannot directly confront and “work through these feelings” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 143). For a number of existentialist phenomenological therapists, these experiences are important for understanding how the individual relates to their world and to others. Existential phenomenological therapists take the position that dreams are the lived experiences of the individual and can provide information “and experience highly relevant to these existential concerns” (Craig & Walsh, 1993, p. 143). In this regard, dreams can shed light on feelings and thoughts that were not within the dreamer’s conscious awareness relative to these conflicts with the four givens of human nature (death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness) (Craig & Walsh, 1993). However, I would submit that in order to delve into matters that are not within the dreamer’s conscious awareness, we are required to look beyond the actual content of the creams and look for hidden meaning. This is precisely what Boss cautions against. My own dream experience calls attention to Langdrige’s (2006) observations: What story of the self is being narrated in the dream and why now; What limits and possibilities of selfhood are recounted in the story; How do these limits and possibilities relate first to the immediate context of the telling and then the wider context of the client's being-in-the-world (p. 8). An existential phenomenological therapist would invite me to ask these questions and to observe my dreamed responses and my waking responses, feelings and thoughts when awake from the dream. However, I have asked these questions and I am unable to make a connection with my waking world. Influenced by Boss, the existential-phenomenological therapist sees the dream world as it relates to the waking world as just another mode of “carrying to fulfillment the one and the same historical existence” (Shafton, 1995, p. 141). This is not to say that the dream world takes on greater prominence than the waking world. Dreams must only be construed as necessary for developing the dreamer’s life. Dreams are “embedded in a waking history” and dreams will shift so that they correspond with the dreamer’s reality (Shafton, 1995, p. 142). After all, dreams always lead back to some aspect of the waking world and have no real use outside of its relationship to the dreamer’s reality. Although, the dreamer’s dream state and dream experiences and responses are important, they are only important insofar as they are related to and illuminate the dreamer’s reality. In this regard, unless one is able to make the connection to the waking reality, the dream must necessarily be meaningless. However, existentialist-phenomenological therapists adhere to the belief that nothing, including dreams, is meaningless. IV. Conclusion Psychoanalysts work with dreams as a means of understanding some aspects of their clients’ experiences. However, the value and use of dreams differ among classical psychoanalysis and existential-phenomenological therapists. More recently, psychoanalysts have paid increasing attention to the person experiencing the dreams as a means of understanding the dream. This new emphasis is influenced by Boss who advocated for moving away from the hidden meaning of dreams and more toward concentrating on the dream’s contents (Langdridge, 2013). Thus the existential-phenomenological approach to working with dreams takes the position that dreams are important experiences despite any symbolic meaning that can be attached to it (Hill, 1996). However, this is not a strictly held tenet of existential-phenomenological approaches to working with dreams. Van Duerzen (2005A) imputed metaphoric meaning into client’s dream to gain an understanding of it. Boss’s approach nevertheless contributes to and encapsulates the autonomous and personal nature of existential-phenomenological therapeutic relationships. The dream is interpreted via the personal impressions and experiences of the client rather than via the expertise of the analysts. Therefore in the existential-phenomenological interpretation of dreams, the dream is the client’s narrative and by asking questions relative to the dreamer’s own waking world, the client can identify and resolve issues in the waking world that are more freely explored in the dream world. From my own experience this is easier said than done. I have tried to determine, as Boss suggests, what the contents of my dream reveal about my waking life issues and concerns and even after repeatedly revisiting my dream as Van Duerzen suggest, I am no closer to connecting my dream with my reality. I suspect however, that if I used metaphors and symbolism I might be able to find a hidden meaning. Bibliography Boss, M. (2001). Zollikon Seminars: Protocols, Conversations, Letters. US: Northwestern University Press. Boss, M. (1982). Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis. Cambridge, MA: Da Capa Press. Boss, M. (1978). I Dreamt Last Night: New Approach to the Revelations of Dreaming-And Its Uses in Psychotherapy. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Caperton, W. (2012). “Dream-Work in Psychotherapy: Jungian, Post-Jungian, Existential-Phenomenological, and Cognitive Approaches.” Graduate Counseling Psychology, Vol. 3(1) Article 1: 1-36. Corrie, S. and Milton, M. 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