Conrad: ok, you want to know the thing about dream interpretation?
Conrad: The trick?
Susan: No, what is it?
Susan: Oh, do I want to know. Yes, I do.
Conrad: Are you wearing your Freudian slip?
Conrad: The trick is to respect avoidance.
Susan: How does this work in practice?
Conrad: Learning to interpret them accurately is the easy part. Knowing *not* to interpret them accurately is what makes it hard.
Susan: Ah, knowing what would be uncomfortable or damaging for someone to hear about?
Conrad: So, the best you can do is to be a mediator that brings the message through in a sweetened way. The bitterer the message, the more
you sweeten.
Conrad: Yes, exactly.
Susan: Can you give me an example?
Conrad: When you fight against someone's avoidance strategies, you just convince them you're a dick.
Conrad: Well, the difference is between someone not understanding what it means (b/c they're not emotionally/symbolically literate) and they don't WANT to know.
Conrad: So: a dream where someone goes shopping, is harrassed by homeless guys, and flees:
Conrad: avoidance or ignorance?
Susan: hmm. Could be either?
Conrad: What kind of thing happened?
Susan: He avoided someone?
Conrad: It's a she; but yeah.
Conrad: the dreaming mind fled the situation=fled the message being communicated.
Conrad: Why?
Susan: I dunno, she's frightened by or otherwise dislikes homeless people?
Conrad: What was she doing before the contact?
Susan: Spending money.
Conrad: Yeah, ok; good.
Conrad: But that's only half of shopping.
Susan: Sooo...she's afraid of being homeless or without wealth?
Susan: Is it?
Conrad: Good, good.
Conrad: You get stuff.
Conrad: So, two interpretations possible at this point:
Conrad: Her acquisitive nature is interrupted by concerns for frugality. She represents those (from the POV of shopping-mind) as personifications of homelessness. Frugality will impoverish her -- she flees.
Conrad: Or, it's about materialism not ultimately satisfying the need that drives the shopping, rather than frugality.
Conrad: Speak. I listen.
Susan: And so these interpretations, if presented bluntly, will offend her need for avoidance?
Conrad: In that case, no, because of the way the dream ended.
Conrad: She already had integrated.
Susan: Yes, that makes sense.
Conrad: When she fled the store, she suddenly found herself in a classroom.
Conrad: And there was a guy in the other room snorting cocaine (which she never does).
Conrad: Your move.