Existential Psychotherapy and the Interpretations of Dreams

by Moustakas, Clark E.

• ISBN13: 9781568211800
• ISBN10: 1568211805
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-09-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

Summary

Existential Psychotherapy and the Interpretation of Dreams, by Clark Moustakas, presents a fresh model for the effective integration of dreamwork in humanistically oriented psychotherapy. The existential-phenomenological emphasis opens channels of conscious awareness that enable people in therapy and in everyday living to awaken to their own visions, hopes, and dreams. The internal shadows and fires of individual consciousness come to light in therapy and in dreams and invite self-resources and self-directions for change in self-growth and in significant relationships.
An Existential Model is presented in detail as a guide to effective psychotherapy. With slight modification, the Model is also applicable to an understanding and interpretation of one's own dreams as well as the dreams of people who are in therapy. Through existential awareness and reflective thinking, the reader is encouraged to discover constructive challenges and paradoxes that connect dreams with waking life and lead to the discovery of creative possibilities for work and living.
The existential approach to psychotherapy and dream interpretation is explicated through examples of phenomenological interviewing, use of description in lifting out horizons and core meanings, and analysis of core themes that intimately embrace the self.
Existential philosophy recognizes mystery encompasses the unknown and unpredictable and asserts that regardless of past suffering and impoverishment, the potentials for health and well-being are within reach. The Existential Model offers a practical methodology and a set of guides for achieving these goals and finding a future that moves beyond the restraints and rejections that have resulted from choosing the wrong path for identity expression and selfhood. The person is the central catalyst for decision and action and retains control over her or his own destiny. The caring and competency of the therapist or the dream guide are projected into the person's world, where they evoke images and awarenesses that facilitate expressions of pain and loss, inspire a search for what is blocking growth, and eventually move the person in therapy or in dreamwork to express new feelings, new thoughts, and new ways of being, both internally and in relationships with others.

Author Biography

Clark Monstakas, Ph.D., Ed.D., is President of the Center for Humanistic Studies in Detroit and Senior Consultant and Core Faculty Member in psychology at The Union Institute in Cincinnati.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
An Existential-Phenomenological Approach to Psychotherapy and Dreams	p. 1
Being, Existence, and Language	p. 9
Existence and Being
Phenomenal Meaning and Consciousness
Language and Meaning
Being and Caring	p. 19
Being and Dasein
Being-in-the-World
Time and Temporality
Moods or State-of-Mind
Care
Constituents of Care
Non-Being and Nothingness
Existential Psychotherapy	p. 43
Major Processes of Existential Therapy
Methods of Existential Psychotherapy
Recovering Personal Power	p. 69
An Extended Illustration: Mona Dawson
Review and Summary of Existential Psychotherapy
Dream Life: Pathways to Self-Transformation	p. 79
Dostoevsky's Dreamer
Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
Jung's Theory of Dreams
Gestalt Approach to Dreams
Ullman's Theory of Dreams
Understanding and Interpreting Dreams	p. 111
Dream Life and Waking Life
Contrasting Disturbed and Peaceful Dreams
An Extential-Phenomenological Model for Dream Analysis
Guidelines in Interpreting Dreams
Summary of Steps in Dream Analysis
Applications of the Existential Dream Model	p. 133
Illustrations from My Own Dreams
Illustrations: The Dreams of Others
Lawrence's Dream: "Roadblocks to Nurturing Myself"
John's Dream: "Tagore"
Roberta's Dream: "If I Relinquish My Power, I Lose"
Doug's Dream: "A Journey of the Spirit"
Rob's Dream: "Finding My Way Back Home"
Delores's Dream: "A Dream with a Surprising Outcome"
Norma's Dream: "Learning to Walk around the Pills"
Doris's Dream: "The Policeman"
Dream Work in Therapy Illustrated
Ron's Dream: "To Be Loved and Accepted by One's Father"
Kay's Dream: "On Being Misunderstood"
Mary's Dream: "Life's Hidden Riches"
Values of the Model
Closing Comments
Credits	p. 209
Index	p. 211
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