The Interpersonal Containment of Dreams in Group Psychotherapy: a Contribution to the Work with Dreams in a Group

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to add some theoretical and practical perspectives to the work with dreams. In the first part I will try to add another aspect to dream-theory, and in the second I will present a clinical vignette as illustration. Dreaming is mainly (though not exclusively) an intrapersonal matter; which Freud - and ego and Self psychology after him - researched and elaborated upon. But dream- telling (and even creating a dream to be remembered and told) is an interpersonal event in a relational context. Sharing a dream with a therapist or with a therapy group makes (unconscious) use of others in order to further the psychic work of the dream, and it is on this important aspect of working with dreams that this article focuses.