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above, did not recall dreams after her breakdown. For the last couple of
months, about a year after her breakdown, Marie has begun to
remember her dreams. The dreams were mostly nightmares at
first, and sleeping and the night time in general were the source
of much anxiety. I encouraged Marie to stay with her dreams
and shared my feeling that there are no "bad" dreams and that
nightmares are an opportunity to confront and overcome our
fears. Marie has stayed with her dreams and is a fairly regular
dream recaller now. Though she still has dreams that she labels
nightmares, they do not hold the terror they once did.
In mid-February, Marie joined a dream class I am teaching. About one week after our first session, I was on a San Francisco radio talk show speaking to callers about dreams. Marie listened to the program and then went to bed. She had difficulty going to sleep as she kept thinking about the radio program. She finally slept and had a brief dream: I am with my sister and I call my father to come and pick us up. (In the light of what followed, the idea of being picked up or lifted up by the Father seems very appropriate.) Marie awoke with the dream at about 2 a.m. and began to have words, phrases and thoughts going through her mind. It frightened her somewhat because she associates uncontrolled or "racing" thoughts with her illness. She tried to go back to sleep but the thoughts persisted. She even had a title going through her head to go with the thoughts. Though it frightened her to do so, she finally got up and wrote down the essay that follows. I have made one word change and minor punctuation changes. Otherwise the essay follows as she wrote it down. Marie called me that morning and read the essay to me, asking if it was crazy or if it made any sense. I will let you decide that for yourself. An Essay on Culture, Change, Evolution and the Dreaming
Process
Each culture carries with it a universal set of symbols. Jung talks about archetypes as being inherent in every culture. These archetypes have taken their meaning from the universal interpretation of dreams. So what would it be to have a culture actually change? Change occurs through each individual's dream process. If a man can relate to his dreams and discover a meaning for his dreams which is counter to cultural norms, cultural change is possible. Culture changes also from the true psychic liberation of each individual man. If man can delve into his unconscious, especially through dreaming, and finally 128
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