A picture is worth a thousand words

Youve heard it so many times that it sounds trite. But a picture really IS worth a thousand words. And if a imagine is a rattling finical kind of picture, how much is IT worth?Maybe more? What about really simple pictures and truly simple dreams? No doubt theyre worth a little bit less than complex, elaborate ones. Or are they?In my psychotherapy course one day, I presented my undergraduate students with these questions. Heres a very simple dream from a psychotherapy client I worked with days ago. I wont tell you anything about the client. Ill just tell you his dream, and then lets decide what we can discover about him by exploring it O.K? Heres the dreamI was exhausting a white shirt and a discolour suck up.The students just watch at me, expecting more to come. No, I explain, thats it. Thats the dream. Now lets start to explore it.I then lead them through a group process of assuage associating to the dream (much like I describe on the Working and contend with Dreams Pa ge). Just let your imagination go. Take every element of the dream and just let your mind wander on it. Whatever comes to mind. Dont blackball anything, thats important.There is no right or wrong. It can be a fun, mocking transaction although the results mosttimes may be serious and powerful. Freud thought that extra association bypasses the defenses of rational, logical speak uping and unlocks deeper links within the unconscious. It opens one up to fantasy, symbolism, and emotion the very place from which dreams spring.Here is a list of some of the associations the students come up with. For the purpose of this article Ive organized them somewhat, whereas during the actual exercise the ideas surface in a much more unthawwheeling rain cats and dogs of consciousness purpurate . royalty, bruises, choking, holding ones breath, grief, a combination of blue and pink, goes intumesce with black, The Color of PurpleTIE . formal attire, going to work, phallic symbol, aim(p) up, be ing tied to something, chokes the neck, confiningPURPLE TIE . unconventional, stands out, rebellious, showing offWHITE . clean, pure, unstained, good, lightSHIRT . the top part, covered up, tucked in, stuffed shirt, where are the pants?WHITE SHIRT. conventional, boring, going to work, going to church, corporate AmericaWHITE SHIRT AND PURPLE TIE. unusual combination, contradictory combination, very unconventional, tie really stands outDEPLETION?. theres nix else in the dream, its so static, theres nothing happening, where are the feelings?After we finish this free associating, I then describe the client to the class.At the time Dan had the dream, he was 23 years old. I would describe him as a quiet, held-back person who was very confined (the tie) in how he talked, behaved, and felt towards others. Put bluntly, people anchor him rather boring to be with (white shirt). His emotional and interpersonal life were clotted (the tie).He had almost no friends and felt little connection to his family (the tie again). separate than going to his tedious job (white shirt) as a low level technician for a computer company, essentially nothing was happening in his static, uneventful life (depletion).Dan was also very limited in understanding anything simply the most surface, top-level (shirt) characteristics of his personality. Although outwardly conventional in how he dressed and acted at his job (white shirt), secretly he felt rebellious against authority (purple tie on white shirt) and generally superior (purple) to most people.He liked to think of himself as a political activist who firmly believed in the rights of do by (purple) people and felt more tied to them than anyone else. Comparing outside to inside, he was a bit of a contradiction (white shirt on purple tie).